[Live-demo] OSGeo live DVD (6.0)

[Jim Klassen]

Even the 64bit binaries will be larger on disk.  32bit works more universally which is in line with the mission of the LiveDVD to just work. 

Also, I thought the 32bit kernel could still address >4GB of ram itself (via paging), but limited each process to ~3GB.  (If I remember right, at one point I was running a large DB machine with ~16GB ram back before there was x86_64 and I think most of the ram ended up as disk cache.)

To me this gets at another point though.  I see the LiveDVD as a best effort to demonstrate the functionality that is available in FOSS4G software all in one spot.  I specifically don't see it as an appropriate install for doing production work.  (Except for maybe the documentation.)  In my opinion, the LiveDVD is great for finding and playing with new packages without needing to figure out how to first set them up.  But for production work, it makes more sense to install the packages you choose onto a system setup specifically for your production work.  When doing this, it is easy to install a 64bit OS and install the 32bit or 64bit versions of the packages you want.  This is especially true if you are using an Ubuntu based OS and add the right PPAs.  But is this not the reason we include the Windows and OS X installers on the DVD?

This goes double for using it as a production server.  There are too many "extra" programs installed for any given task.   The programs are setup for ease of use and so that they will just work rather than for taking proper security precautions.  (For one, the many passwords are all easily guessable and widely publicized, etc.)  

Jim

On Sep 13, 2012, at 8:53 PM, Hamish wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> fwiw, in general I'd suppose a special 64 bit build is not worth
> the effort.
> 
> my main question is why is it needed?
> 
> for the minor performance boost from increased access to
> registers? (erm, remember you're working over usb2 or cdrom ...)
> 
> or is anyone planning to use the live(demo)dvd with multigigabyte
> datasets?
> 
> if not, what's the use except for bragging rights that this one
> does 64bits?
> 
> I guess the main ones are people installing from the disk to a
> hard drive to use as their everyday system, and >4gb RAM used as
> disk cache is a nice place to be.
> 
> 
> Anyway, there are many prebuilt wgets for 32 binaries, I'd
> hope they'd all work on a 64bit system, but I can't guarantee
> that all the needed shared libraries will still be there and
> where they expect them to be. Probably we'd have to install all
> the 32bit compatibility libraries too, which may be a bit of a
> drain on the disc space.
> 
> 
> 2c,
> Hamish
> 
> 
> ps- java projects looking to make themselves into .debs might
> have a look at JOSM. I can't speak to the quality of the packaging
> or the approach, only that it is java, it is geospatial, and it
> is in debian & ubuntu already.
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