New
#21
Wow, so many things to comment on, well let's start from the top:
First of all, why is 64-bit necessary for today's computing? How many general use programs require 4GB RAM? Not many. Now that 64-bit is becoming fashionable, and MS is requiring hardware manufacturers to create 64-bit drivers to be WHQL signed, that is helping, but why do we really need 64-bit? So we can run mp3's faster?
Now your next comment is about Windows 7 on laptops. You do realize that laptops are currently outselling desktops, so they are a rather important market for MS. Granted most laptops today are 64-bit capable and can have 4 GB Ram, but there are plenty of Core 2 Duo laptops that have a 2 GB RAM ceiling. There is actually somewhat of a performance hit running 64-bit with only 2 GB RAM. (My situation. Why would I run and incur a performance hit?)
There are also still quite a few yonah laptops (Core Duo and Core Solo) that are not 64-bit capable.
Also note that in the corporate world (MS's largest customer), there are still plenty of 16-bit Visual Basic applets in use. When operating in 64-bit (i.e. Long Mode in AMD64 speak) 16-bit programs will not run.
So, 32-bit will be on the client side for some time. Note I believe that Server 2008 R2 is only available in 64-bit, but I may need to double check that.
PhreePhly