zapbuzz wrote on 2021-09-15, 18:44:
linux 64bit wasn't written from scratch. Lots of it was ported from 32bit and some even just have a layer to run on 64bit.
Last I run linux 32bit on 64bit capable cpu I was surprised it actually ran more robustly but I won't mention the distros I will not turn people away from thei favs inc 64bit.
32bit software (or RISC) won't be dead anytime soon.
That's right, sadly. Older obsolete source code from the 32-Bit *nix era could cause trouble in the near future.
Maybe user Caluser2000 will be so kind and will provide some feedback for us then?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
The correct way of solving this issue would be to rewrite certain code to use 64-Bit pointers, I guess. Or 36-Bit pointers, at least.
Another, only slightly related "32-Bit" related, but noticeable issue lies within our beloved Win98SE, for example.
Technically, it would be possible to retrofit/backport the ExFAT file system for Win98SE.
Because, Win9x has an Installable File System (IFS) component.
Unfortunately, even if done so, Win98SE can't actually fully make use of ExFAT (and DVDs, too) because some system files cannot address more than 4GB (32-Bit).
Heck, it can't even handle individual files larger than 4GB, either. 🙁
So what's the matter? Big files are required for special cases only, mainly. But interesting special cases.
Like HDD images or ISO files. Or extracting highly-compressed RAR files.
For example, Virtual PC 4.x had a port for Windows 9x, too.
It works fine and is an enrichment for any hot-rod Win98 PC (Example:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B-1yBhcMWPM)
So you could run Windows 2000/XP or Linux in a VM on your Win98 machine. Or Vista/7, maybe.
Unfortunately, this will limit individual virtual HDDs to 4GB, which is very limiting.
Even with NTFS, provided through Paragons NTFS driver, the 4GB file limit in Win98 still persists.
And all that just because of that obsession for 32-Bit. If 36-Bit addresses/pointers were used, things would be way less limiting.
-The 32-Bit x86 versions of Windows 2k/XP/.. don't have this limitation, for example.
They can handle large files just fine (though not on FAT32 of course).
Some further links can be found in an older thread..
pendrive with exFAT in Win98
Edit: Correction. Some bits weren't quite right. 😅
Edit: Quote marked.
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