My laptop currently runs the 64-bit version of Arch Linux.
The last time (some years ago, I must admit) I tried to run a 64-bit Linux distribution, I was disappointed by the issues that existed with some Firefox plugins, Skype and some other 32-bit applications.
Some weeks ago, as I had to reinstall my laptop and thought it’s time again to give a try to a 64-bit distro. So I installed Arch Linux 64-bit.
And well, after some weeks of use as a desktop distro, I must say that in the end there is no single significant difference between the 64-bit and the 32-bit versions of Arch Linux. Flash works, Skype works. The set-up of Skype is not straightforward, but after I manually installed 32-bit libraries which are needed by Skype but not automatically installed, Skype now runs flawlessly, on top of Pulseaudio.
On server-side, I’ve already been using Arch64 for sime time now (virtualized on a openSUSE 64-bit host) and it runs flawlessly, but that’s no big challenge for a modern Linux distro…
I still don’t know what the 64-bit desktop versions of Ubuntu, openSUSE or Fedora are worth, but I’m very happy to see that Arch64 is rock-solid, and I would definitely recommend it to anybody who has some basic command-line knowledge.
To be more complete, I should also try running some 32-bit closed source games on Arch64, but I really don’t have much time to try, as I’m not really interested in computer games.
