Ryandor.com

I would be upset if I had paid for it, but I did not ? it is a free download on Microsoft.com (you get 120 days free trial). Of course, you need a 64-bit system to support it.

My first impression is that it loads VERY fast, but that may just be my system in general. My computer boots from completely off to logged in and nothing happening within about 10 seconds. All the office software that usually takes minutes to load, loads instantly, and everything responds as quickly as my finger can click. That is all a plus.

Unfortunately, it is incapable of running 32-bit software natively. Unfortunately, again, almost all software is 32-bit right now. It does come with an intuitive emulator, though, that can automatically detect and run programs appropriately (there are two ?Program Files? folders, one with (x86) on the end of it, and separate registries, etc.). This has worked for _MOST_ things I have tried, but some software simply will not work. It also runs as fast or faster than if I had installed the 32-bit version of XP and ran it natively, which is cool. The biggest downside, though, are the drivers ? there are practically none that are any decent. Big names like SoundBlaster and NVIDIA give you 64-bit drivers, but they are buggy and error-prone. Oh, and my cable modem has no drivers at all for it for 64-bit. That annoys me.

Also, there is very little support. For example, the BF2 demo will NOT install on my system, no matter what. Apparently it works fine for 90% of people, and 10% experience the same error and fix it by buying more RAM, a new MOBO, or somehow changing their hardware, or don?t fix it at all. Since it is all so new, there are very few people who have had the same problems you are having before, so the days of typing in an error number and getting 40,000 answers in Google are not here yet for XP64.  That, too, annoys me.

For whatever reason, Ryzom, a game my girlfriend and I have been playing, refuses to patch, too. I circumvent this by setting her Ryzom folder to shared, and copying over the modified files whenever she patches (this also is faster, anyway). That annoys me.

All that aside, though, my system is blazing fast, and every game (that would install) runs on max settings with absolutely no hiccups. Smooth is fun, and I can finally load Ryzom in a few seconds (my girlfriend has to wait 15 minutes, literally).

I will stick with XP64 for a while, and see if I can survive with it, but I may put in my old HD and install XP32 for those games I really want to play but cannot with XP64.

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Blog: http://www.sydius.org
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I'm running on an AMD Athlon 64bit dual core at the moment...

Eventually I'm going to turn this into a server machine, running linux on it. Though I think I won't be upgrading to a 64 bit OS anytime soon for many of the reasons that you listed above.

It's just too much of a hassle, and once they start adding better 32 bit support for software into the 64 bit OS's then I'll probably upgrade. At least I'm prepared for the future if I'm not exactly living in it.

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Better Deader

AMD 64 dual is a good one but I'll be holding off on the 64OS also for the very same reasons as both of you have stated.

It will most likely be a couple of years before they get all the drivers/vendors up to speed on the new stuff because their milking all the old stuff out of the utter first.

Dev

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"So...if crazy people don't know their crazy...does that mean your only sane if your know your crazy?"

Developing software, including drivers, for 64-bit XP is a minor affair if it is completely C++ with nothing lower-level. Unfortunately, many drivers still fine-tune things with assembly, and that is not nearly as easy to upgrade.

I wiped my computer and reinstalled Win32, though. I put it on a 100GB partition, and left the rest blank, in case I decide to use it for Win64, Linux, or both (I have another 150GB).

Some differences:

Win32 definitely boots/loads slower. Win64 was up and ready to go in a few seconds, but it takes Win32 nearly 10 seconds ? still almost three times faster than my old system, though.

There are also millisecond delays when opening some software, like the office suite, which was not there in the 64-bit version.

Finally, everything works, which is cool.

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Blog: http://www.sydius.org
Web: http://www.sydius.net