Another quick question. I found that I have a 64 bit CPU according to the PC information program but I thought I had a 32 bit CPU.
Would the 64 bit installation have an advantage?
I'll be categorical, maybe a little too much for Patrick.
But yes there are only advantages to having a 64 bit operating system when the processor allows it.
The first reason is that there is less and less 32-bit software and it will not improve ...
The second is why have a ferrari and use it as a 2CV citroen?
Another analogy is like if on a 4-lane motorway, cars were forced to use only 2, leaving two free. If the developers of cpu and motherboards have decided to double the width of the bus, it is in the hope of passing more data with the same frequency.
The only problem is that, as the data circulates faster, the ram memory is necessarily saturated faster and swap accesses are more frequent.
I didn't ask you in my first inxi, how much ram your computer has, but if you have more than 2GB, you will only see advantages in using a 64-bit OS.
I looked at the technical characteristics of your cpu, despite its age (Q4 2008), It has quite honorable performance: 2 physical cores @ 2.53 GHz and 3MB of cache memory, it remains to be seen if you have enough ram:
sudo inxi -m (in this case the "sudo" is necessary for inxi to access the data of the ram) I have several computers with a cpu less powerful than yours, including one with only 3 GB of ram, which work fine with 64 bit OS.
At worst, if you only have 2 GB, it will work fine, but if you want it to work better, a extra 2B DDR2 ram stick is cheap (especially if you buy it from chineses)
32-bit is disappearing, Emmabuntus is one of the last to offer it, but the day debian no longer offers 32-bit ... it will be over. It's a shame about old computers, but there's nothing we can do about it. Yours is not so old, you are lucky to be able to use a 64-bit OS ... Do it.
