A little confused about which OS to get

I was all set to get a Dell Latitude when I ran across the whole 32/64 bit discussion. I guess I can order with XP 32/Vista Business 64, but is it difficult to find 64 bit versions of software programs? If I walk into Costco and buy QuickBooks am I out of luck for a 64 bit version
?

Also, I may just wait on Vista all together and jump to Windows 7. Is all Win 7 a 32 bit OS, or 64?

 

almost everything is 64bit compatible these days, so I'd recommend getting 64bit.

as for Win7, it'll be available in both 32bit and 64bit flavors.

 

FAIL. 64bit is getting there, but it ain't there yet. For maximum compatibility with both drivers and software 32bit is still the way to go.

 

I understand that with XP 64 bit has problems. But what about Vista 64?

 

You can run a 64-bit operating system and get pretty much any 32-bit software to run on it. Most Intel and AMD processors 64-bit processors also include a 32-bit processor core in order to allow the operating system to run 32-bit software. Also, the system can run 32-bit software through emulation.

Long story short, you should have no problem running 32-bit programs on a 64-bit environment; in fact, you'll have to do that with most software since most vendors have not introduced 64-bit versions of their programs.

I have been running 64-bit Vista for about a year now and have not run into any problems with any software that I've tried to run, be it true 64-bit or 32-bit.

 

Perfect! Thanks for the help

 

No problemo.

 

IMO, there is no reason to jump to 64-bit since no any significant performance jump or any better stability. Also most softwares to date are 32-bit. Although you can run those apps fine, it doesn't take any advantage on 64-bit system. Until there are 64-bit version for every apps you use, that will be the time. In brief, if you are not sure, you can try--don't expect any differences though.

 

Oops. 64-bit drivers are easy to find for any system built within the past few years. Are you familiar with WoW64? Your 32-bit apps are compatible because of this convenience, as well. 64-bit is the way to go; hopefully more developers will see the light.

There are subtle and more noticeable differences alike. On the more esoteric end, 64-bit Vista uses ASLR for added security. The absence of the 32-bit (4GB) address space barrier is more than enough reason to migrate.

 

Microsft requires manufacturers nowadays to provide 64-bit drivers... and there's no problems with them for Vista. XP 64-bit, yeah. Lack of knowledge fail, Captain Fail!

Sipp, there's no reason to stay 32-bit unless you use some very specific 16-bit software or the like.

64-bit Vista and 7 are the future.

 

Vista is a fine OS, ignore everything you read about it.

it was crap I agree, because most systems had no more than 1GB of memory.

on 4 or even 3 GB RAM Vista is a good and solid OS, can I use a XP for 1 year and not get it full with ads/connectors/viruses/spyware?
NO
whilst im doing just that on Vista.

as for compatibility, everything is compatible with X64 (well almost) cuz Im using this 64bit version of Vista since mid 2007 and it's running without any issues.