32 or 64 in linux

[fjdhdhcyfhf]

This question came up recently in a linux user group and no one had an answer

Should you use 32bit OS with less than 2 or 3Gb of ram?

Also is there a benefit of running 32 bit Virtual machine on a 64 bit host when assigning 1 or 2Gb of ram.

The reasoning for these questions is that some programs use significantly more ram on 64

[vanished]

Better to run 64 bit if you have a 64 bit CPU regardless of RAM amount.  Just because you need 64 for more than 4 GB, does't mean you should run 32 bit with less than 4 GB.  I ran 64 bit on a 2 GB machine for years back ~9 years ago.

[fjdhdhcyfhf]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

Better to run 64 bit if you have a 64 bit CPU regardless of RAM amount.  Just because you need 64 for more than 4 GB, does't mean you should run 32 bit with less than 4 GB.  I ran 64 bit on a 2 GB machine for years back ~9 years ago.

yes but the programs running on it also use up more RAM

[vanished]

1 minute ago, SCHISCHKA said:

yes but the programs running on it also use up more RAM

If that concerns you, then you have your answer

 

[WereCat]

Get more RAM it is cheap... run x64?

[Megah3rtz]

2 minutes ago, WereCat said:

Get more RAM it is cheap... run x64?

that is not his question though

[Drak3]

3 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

yes but the programs running on it also use up more RAM

It usually doesn't make much difference though. I've used a number of programs that have 32 and 64bit variants, and they rarely use more RAM just because they're 64bit.

I tested in:

Photoshop CS5.5

Firefox and Waterfox (64bit version of Firefox)

IE 8, 10, and 11

Various Java versions

and others that I haven't used in at least a year.

[WereCat]

10 minutes ago, Megah3rtz said:

that is not his question though

I know and I am not Linux guy so I just provided possible solution.