Can someone enlighten me why anyone would run a 32bit OS on a 64bit processor? Especially when a 64bit OS can run 32bit programs. Is there some niche software people have to use that doesn't run on a 64bit OS (but somehow doesn't have a problem with the underlying silicon being 64bit)?
this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2025
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Not quite sure if this answers your question, but at least on Linux, there is the x32 ABI, which uses most of the changes of x64 over x86, except that pointers are 32-bit. This allows programs to use more registers & other goodies from x64, while keeping pointers small.
If your program doesn't use over 4GiBs of memory, it can result in a smaller memory footprint (less space used for pointers) and better performance (smaller structs fit better in CPU cache).
Also, there are people who run a 32-bit OS on a 64-bit CPU and don't know better.
I'm disappointed that the article no where mentions that people running 32 bit windows for whatever reasons they need to couldn't upgrade to 32 bit Linux.
Isn't 32 bit support also being talked about being dropped from the kernel...? 32 bit is dead. It's not like we will support 16 but processors.
That's not strictly true. They're dropping certain features of 32-bit but not dropping 32-bit entirely.
Desktop 32 bit is dead pretty much already. The applications are in the IoT and sever space.
Yes but there is still a retro scene using original hardware. It's nice to have full internet capabilities.
i was wondering who would still be doing this and your comment reminded me of those youtube videos where people get macos 7 and windows 3 online.