64bit Linux? Scream.

I keep hearing THE TIME IS NOW! for 64 bit Linux. Then I try it. Much Sadness Ensues.

Look, I get it. 64 bit – it’s the future. It makes sense. It’s all good. It’s been here in consumer-class hardware for several years. We love it. And yet, when I run 64 bit Linux, I have to STILL jump through hoops with ndiswrapper to get all those critical to life firefox plugins to work, since there are STILL no 64 bit plugins. Adobe? Hello?

I hope someday this post will be quaint and funny. Unfortunately for now, it still comes down to two choices:

  • 32 bit (with PAE if you run 4GB or more ram, in Ubuntu that means use the server kernel from synaptic) and everything just works, or
  • 64 bit, with pain and suffering for browser plugins from adobe like flash (the native one ALMOST works, but not quite) and acroread.

So, what’s the holdup people? Get Cracking! Or if you can’t get cracking, make the 32 bit plugins "JUST WORK" in firefox for the end user – click and install just like in 32 bit land.

Ok, back to work.