This questions is probably getting more common. 32-bit (x86) started with Windows 95(?). 64-bit (x64) started with Windows XP, but wasn't very popular then; now with Vista and the upcoming Windows 7 x64 is much more available. Most computer hardware that is not over about 3 or more years old likely supports x64, so the hardware usually isn't a problem, the software is the main problem. You might be reading this blog to decide if you should use a x64 or x86 OS, I will share my personal experience so you can make your own best decision.
I have used the x86 version of Windows XP, Vista, and Ubuntu. I have used the x64 version of Vista, Windows 7, and Ubuntu. There was absolutely no more work installing the x64 version instead of the x86 version of either Windows or Ubuntu. I've heard that Windows XP has horrible driver support for the x64 version, but I've never tried the x64 of XP. I have not had any driver problems with Windows Vista x64, Windows 7 x64, or Ubuntu x64. 64-bit versions of Windows will not run 16-bit applications. Those applications are usually outdated and have a newer version available. I've used two different computers with the x64 and x86 and never had any hardware driver issue. The default browser of Windows Vista and 7 is the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer because popular programs (Flash, Java, etc.) do not run on the 64-bit browsers on Windows yet. On Ubuntu the default browser is 64-bit and will run Flash and Java; to install Flash on Ubuntu x64 takes a bit of work and a beta package as I am writing this article. Silverlight runs fine on x86 and x64 of both Windows and Ubuntu. Ubuntu x86 works better with some applications, but the x64 version works with all the applications I've tried. A Linux messaging application called aMSN needs a few packages installed before it can be installed. I favor x64 OSes because they have better performance over x86 ones. Also I have 4 GB of RAM as I write, I've heard x86 OSes only will detect something like 3.7 GB.
My conclusion is I like x64. It depends on what applications you use for your decision. I have had minor problems using x64 that are able to be overcome. If you have over 3 GB of RAM you need 64-bit to use all of it. The future of computers is 64-bit; 32-bit is becoming a thing of the past. Software companies (like Adobe) are what's slowing down the conversion. If you have a few applications that don't run on the 64-bit architecture you have a few choices. The first is dual-booting. Installing both x86 and x64 OSes with an option to boot into the one you need. The second choice is using a virtual machine. I like Microsoft's Virtual PC. It has a simple UI and is easy to learn how to use. There is also Virtual Box that I use on Ubuntu. Both of those are free. I've heard of VMWare, but I don't use it, mainly because most of the versions cost money. Both of those methods I described take quite a bit of extra hard drive space (around 15 GB). You do not need an extra licence to install a second copy of a Windows OS under a virtual machine or dual boot. You will need the install disk that you can likely borrow from a friend or order from Microsoft (I think shipping is about $10, and the disk is free).
I haven't written a blog post in a few days. I've been busy with other things and didn't have time to get to a blog post. Now I have time and a subject. As you probably have guessed by the name of my blog I've been using the Windows 7 beta as my primary OS. I was running Windows XP as a virtual machine under Windows 7 and my computer got a infamous blue screen of death saying that a secondary processor skipped a clock tick or something. I rebooted and everything looked fine, so I started my Windows Server 2003 virtual machine under a different virtual computer host and tried doing the same thing. I got another blue screen. I rebooted and told my computer to only use 1 core and tried doing the same thing I tried before. This time instead of a blue screen my computer just froze, the mouse wouldn't even move, and they keyboard was completely frozen too (num lock didn't turn on or off, that usually means everything is dead). I pushed the reset button on my computer and noticed that all the Windows services had been prevented from loading, I was not in safe mode though. I decided at that point a complete OS reinstall would be the best thing to do. The only problem with that is I currently have absolutely no Windows installation media. I do own 3 licenses for Windows Vista, I legally have Windows 7, I have 2 legal licenses of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008. I let a friend borrow my Vista and Windows 7 install disks (completely legally). All the XP licenses were OEM copied with no install media, just a product key. The server OSes I acquired through Dreamspark, I did have install disks for them, but who wants to use a server OS for their desktop? Luckily I had installed Ubuntu Linux before using Wubi. Linux was still completely intact and usable, except for the fact that I was not used to the Gnome or even Linux interface and apps. My friend said he would be able to get the install media to me on Wednesday night, I probably won't be able to install it for a few days after that because I'll be busy. So currently I am using Ubuntu Linux on my primary computer. All this happened on Sunday (1 day before I wrote this blog post); now I am writing this blog on Monday night (using my XP laptop); I am posting this on Tuesday morning; I will probably get the installation media Wednesday night; I will likely format and reinstall on Thursday afternoon.
pixieApps, part 2
In my last blog post I reviewed the pixieApps. When I did that review I had not used them for very long before writing it. Now that I’ve used them more I am going to make a second blog post about other things about them. There’s a nice “set padlock” feature that will password protect each of the apps. The annoying thing about that feature is when it asks for the password the default selected item is visible behind the password enter window. When I try to select all the text in a textbox usually I drag my mouse from the right side to out the left side of the textbox, but with the textboxes in the pixieApps it will deselect everything if I drag outside of the textbox. I understand that this is a “problem” with Adobe Air, not the pixieApps. I like the installation process on Windows, it doesn’t take much time, just a few clicks to install Adobe Air and then the app.
pixieApps
From watching Chris Pirillo’s live stream I heard about his pixieApps. I got my virtual hands on all of them; I have tested them an like them. I think they will be useful for me in the near future. They all come with nice sample entries that show the general purpose of the app. There are a few things I don’t like about them, but they are still very good. I can only delete one entry at a time; if I want to delete all the sample ones I need to delete them all 1 at a time. When I change something in the current item and go to a different item it won’t ask me if I want to save it or not, it just discards the changes. When I hide the edit pane it animated going upward, but the show button is not on the top, it is on the left; it takes a little bit to get used to that. Over all I think they apps are very good. Thank you Chris Pirillo! You can get the pixieApps for yourself at http://apps.pirillo.com/; you are able to set your own price from $0.01 to as much as you want. They use Adobe Air so they are cross platform and will run on Windows, Linux, and Mac.
Piracy; YOU can do something about it!
This information is out of date, but it will stay online for archival purposes.
While browsing around the internet you probably have seen pirated software. I have seen way too much of it to not do anything about it. I feel like I’m not making a big difference in it, you probably will feel the same way. If everybody felt that way, Microsoft would need to spend lots of money hiring a team to go find it that probably wouldn’t find it all. With many people, who don’t feel significant, reporting there will be a lot taken down. You might wonder, “Why should I help?” If people cannot pirate it, they will need to buy it, if they buy it Microsoft gets money, with that money they will pay their employees to work on better software. But if all the software keeps getting pirated Microsoft will not have enough money to pay for all their employees and will have to let some go. With less employees working the progress will be slower and worse quality. I would like piracy to stop for multiple reasons; I want good quality products, and I will likely have to pay less if everybody pays for the software.
If you would like to help stop piracy you can report what you find to . I will be glad if people join me in stopping piracy.
Thank you for reading and joining me.
(I do not work for Microsoft, I am not getting paid for doing this, I just want better software)
RuneScape
I have been playing an online MMORPG game called RuneScape recently. I find it entertaining; sometimes it can consume many hours of my time. Before there was no “fair” trade restrictions, but when they announced it, a friend of mine that was very rich at the time gave me 1 million coins (that’s a lot for me). Now with the trade restrictions I cannot be given anything or give anything over 10k. Just recently I bought 10k cowhides, it cost me over 1 million coins. Now I’m tanning all of them, 27 at a time. I will be able to sell the tanned ones for more money than I bought them for. I plan on owning 2 million coins when I have finished tanning them all.
Help me, people!
I am going to make a blog post, but I do not know what to make it about. Please comment telling me what to make a blog about. Probably something about computers.
Hello World
This is my first blog post on Blogger. I have written a few blogs before, but this one I am planning on keeping going. I will mainly be blogging about Windows. I use Windows 7 so that will probably be the main subject.
I probably will be talking a lot about Windows software also; I am open to suggestions for what to blog about. I sometimes do use Ubuntu Linux; I am a noob to Linux, but it’s something I’d like to learn and use.
I hope you will enjoy my future blog posts.
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