Vista Business: 32 or 64 bit?

I'm sure this has been covered on the forums, but apparently "64" and "bit" are such common terms that the search returns all sorts of things but the specific information that I want (namely about operating systems), hence this topic.

As I understand it, it's hard to acquire 64-bit drivers and whatnot for computers. If a 64-bit operating system is offered to be preinstalled, would this circumvent the above issue?

The benefits of 64-bit, besides being able to address an insane amount of RAM that no one would ever have for years to come, are really only available to programs coded for it. (again, if i'm correct...)

It seems like a good idea to take advantage of the few programs that can use it, but will it come at the cost of problems running 32-bit programs? If to run any 32-bit program, it takes an extra amount of fiddling around, then i'll probably avoid it as i'm not that interested in troubleshooting for hours (mostly looking for solid use in college next year).

So I guess basically, how painless would a 64-bit operating system preinstalled be for future use with games and other programs that are largely 32-bit?

 

For now 32-bit is the way to.

Little by little 64-bit will become more mainstream but not for a while.

I would go with 32-bit Vista.

 

I think the 64 bit version is far better than the 32 bit one. It's more secure and it runs a little faster (although not noticeable). Also, consider that Vista is the last OS from Microsoft to come in a 32 bit alternative. 64 bit is the way to go. If people will not use it then it will never become mainstream.

 

If you do use the 64-bit version you may have trouble finding drivers and getting some software programs to work correctly.

 

I am currently running Vista Business x64 for about two weeks now.

My experience goes like this. After installation of Vista, most of the drivers are installed, except for some specific hardware including the display drivers, hotkey drivers, and a couple of Asus applications. It crashes twice with the netv3w64.sys for the first week, and i figured it has something to do with networking and my wireless. Updated the stock x64 drivers to the latest Intel drivers and there's no crash ever since (till now) . After leaving it for a week, the performance is like a dream after all the hard drive indexing and superfetch is complete. Driver support is great from most major vendors as far as i know.

Application wise, most of my games installed, but performance seems to be same with XP/Vista 32bit. Emulation software such as PCSX2 (a PS2 emulator) ran significantly faster and prone to less crashes. College applications such as NetBeans IDE 5.5 ran faster on it. I have only encountered one application incompatibilty, Photomodeller lite, but it is not a main program, so the impact is not significant and i relegate it to my XP x64 system for modelling. Seems more like a Vista incompatibility rather than a 64 vs 32bit issue.

It also has some security features exclusive to the 64bit Vista, e.g Patchguard.
Overall I'm very satisfied with the 64bit Vista.

An advice : Do a dual boot on your current setup with a 64bit media, install and do a trial run with your software and hardware.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

I ask because i'm considering getting the Thinkpad T61 15.4", which, if its anything like the 14.1", offers Vista Business 64 preinstalled, which i'm hoping will mostly circumvent the driver issues.

As far as 32-bit program compatibility goes, I guess i'll take the chance since it isn't as dismal as I first thought. The improved kernel security attracts me to this route especially.

So I imagine this program ran in XP Professional x64? That's promising, since it seems like the XP to Vista transition will happen sooner with software than 32-bit to 64-bit.