One word:

Netbooks

I was truly hoping that Win7 would be all 64 bit and then netbooks started shipping like pancakes on Denny’s free Grand Slam day. I know at least a dozen Mac users on one forum that have bought a Dell Inspiron mini9 and installed OS X on it. I wonder if Apple will leave them high and dry by making Snow Leopard (OS 10.6) 64 bit only?

Microsoft said they want Win7 on netbooks. Ergo, we will have 32 bit Win7 for at least another 2 or 3 years or until the entire Atom line is 64 bit. Another item that might be a hindrance; is there a 64 bit dual core ARM?

I think Intel is partly at fault. They lagged AMD and had to shoot the P4 architecture in the head when it ran into the dead end. 64 bit was briefly forgotten by the side of the road in the nearly mindless fire drill rush to Core Duo. Even after the Pentium D was abandoned some of the consumer Northbridge chips could not address more than 3.3 GB of RAM even if the CPU was capable.

Developers are part of the equation. It usually takes 18 months for software to get optimized for hardware. When are the iPhone and Google Android going to have 64 bit development kits?

Yep netbooks, hence the reason why I suggest this upcoming version of Windows continues to offer 32 bit as an option where hardware requires it. But Microsoft makes an early public commitment that subsequent versions of Windows will only be 64 bit, and those versions offer no 32 bit compatibility layer. It’s the only way we will get the eco-system away from re-using old 32 bit code time and again.

Why does everyone have difficulty understanding that the Desktop Client value for MS is as a platform for running it’s other products. Support contract revenue is at historic levels. Last year revenue from Windows fell 8% while Server and Tools grew 19%.

This isn’t Apple where the desktop is the only product used by a tiny sliver of users. Backward compatibility is king for them.

Yep, too many folks trying to use obsolete hardware will whine too much if you kill off 32bit. Just look at these people that NEED their TV and yet can’t find $40-$45 to buy a converter box for their antennae… why are we hindering progress to save all these people.

I understood that many companies are still using very important software that would otherwise be considered outdated.

In otherwords, they’re pretty much stuck with whatever OS they’ve been using.

If the Windows 7 beta is any indication, Microsoft better go back to the drawing board on 64bit software. After many complaints about Windows 7 on my machine versus others experiences on theirs, I have found that the problem is not my system, but my choice of the 64bit variant of the operating system. In 32 or 64 bit, Windows 7 stinks, but has fewer errors with the 32 bit version.

As for Linux, Fedora 10 in 64 bit seems to work well. Perhaps the Microsoft coders could check it out.

(last thought)

I was reading a series of exchanges on Inforworld about the problems with Windows 7, and it appears that some of the problems with the 64 bit version is due to lack of registry reflection. Since this is something done in Vista, yet not done in 7, and Microsoft has said they work with the same software, one either has to discount anything Microsoft says as lies, or simple stupidity. Your choice.

It seems that all othe ‘idea’ people are gone, leaving Ballmer and Ozzie to come up with ideas pulled from the graveyard of bad ideas.

[...] Is it time Microsoft killed off 32 bit Windows? [...]

Sorry, but some of us have work to do.

And speaking of memory, we also remember the “fun” transition from 8/16 bit warez.

Hell, I still rely on DOS/Lotus 1,2,3 v. 2.2 for managing/printing my chemical formulas. Subsequent 32 bit versions never cut the mustard. Am too old to start over w/ Excel.

Forchrisake, if you enjoy replacing all your warez every time the developers need a fresh revenue $tream, get a friggin MAC.

32-bit support can/should be supported in windoze for at least the next decade.

BTW, most PC’s still host 2 gigs or less of ram.

Dos is king and anyone whom uses it. Windows is for the retarded. Why the hell should we be supporting an O.S. dictatorship thats pushing everything you do on a computer into a multi megabit, living color, carnival of BLOATWARE!
I still use DOS, just like I’am still a beleaver in Jesus, just like I still run around and work with my hands! just like I still rely on my immunesystem to fix me up rather then pop some @$#%&^* pill. If your not frighten yet and if you can comprehend the terminology, I still use DEBUG and TASM to write and assemble code, just like the fact that I still use paste for my PROTEIN. I will never by another OS from Microsoft after XP and when I’ve completed my Dos USB modem, Dos ICH4 ac’97 driver and other Dos goodies, delete the Windows directory for ever. Theirs a generation comeing into focus that know the benifit of a commandline enviroment and when they sharped their skills  http://wiki.osdev.org/Projects) JESUS will rise from the dead once more, AND MAYBE we’ll all get together and form a corporation of are own and call it MEGAHARD!