Google seems to have an odd way of deploying their Chrome browser. The first reaction when it appeared was, "Hey! Where’s the Mac and Linux versions? What gives?"

It was nothing short of strange why Google seemed to concentrate on Windows so much concerning their own browser offering. Granted, Windows is the most-used desktop operating system in the world, but hey, there are plenty of Mac and Linux users out there.

So now the 64-bit version of Chrome is available for…

Linux.

And nothing else.

I’m not kidding. Linux people can build it right now if they want to in all its 64-bit glory.

Windows people still get the 32-bit flavor only.

As for Mac OS X? It’s still in development. Sorry, Mac people.

In all seriousness, this is why so many people stick to Firefox. When Mozilla has a release of that browser, it’s worldwide, has almost every conceivable language version available and has versions ready for Windows, Mac and Linux that are ready-to-run.

And yes, there’s 64-bit Firefox just in case you were wondering (as well as several other Mozilla products).

I’m seriously trying to like Chrome.. but.. well.. um.. no.

To our Linux users in the audience, if you’re able to build a 64-bit Chrome and get it to work, please feel free to comment on your experience with it. Many would be interested in your thoughts on it.

Windows 7 can do 64-bit gaming and do it quite well. But can it do it super-large style? Watch and find out.

Microsoft Office will have a 64-bit edition for version 2010. This is a big deal because that’s Microsoft flagship product. More on that in a moment.

At this point in the desktop computing world, we’ve easily reached the limits of what 32-bit processing can do. No matter what OS you’re running, there really isn’t any more we can squeeze out of it. In the past it was CPU clock speeds that people wanted. We have that now. Then it was how many cores we can stuff into a CPU. We’ve got that too (and more are coming). The only bottleneck left is the 4GB RAM limitation of the 32-bit architecture. And the only way to rid that is to go 64-bit.

Why is the industry hanging on to 32-bit? Why do large PC makers continue to promote and sell 32-bit systems when 64-bit is just as affordable?

It’s because of the lack of native 64-bit applications.

Being that Microsoft will have a native 64-bit edition of MS Office, this now gives people a reason to go 64-bit – but it’s not like others haven’t tried. A good example is the game Half-Life 2 from Valve. That’s had a 64-bit edition since 2005(!), but even that couldn’t sway gamers over to 64-bit, and those people are some of the most diehard bleeding-edge PC hardware geeks you’ll find.

Will Microsoft lead the charge into the 64-bit world? They might. It may be the killer app that finally puts 32-bit to rest, both in enterprise and in the home.

However, there are two factors in play here that may keep 32-bit around for a while yet.

Future OSes will be smaller and faster

OS-makers have realized that there’s too much bloat. This counts for Windows and Linux.

Windows 7 will be decidedly slimmer compared to Vista. Vista in its present state isn’t just fat. It’s obese.

A good portion of the Linux community is screaming to tone down the sizes of the distros, citing that any distro over a CD’s size (roughly 700MB) is a waste of material. And they’re right. You may notice that DVD-sized distros don’t command nearly as much attention as the CD-sized and smaller ones do.

Smaller, faster OSes mean there isn’t a legitimate need for 64-bit. Instead, 32-bit will work fine if the OS is "tuned" properly to suit so it doesn’t require gobs and gobs of RAM.

The internet is the killer app

The internet itself is probably the "app" you use most.

Ask yourself: What app do you use more than your web browser?

The internet if treated as an app does not require any advantage 64-bit would bring. Whether you have 2GB of RAM now with a 32-bit system or 8GB with a 64-bit setup, the internet still runs the same.

What’s your say?

Will the fact MS Office will have 64-bit finally start to phase out 32-bit systems?

Is 64-bit even needed when the internet is what we use most?

Should the question be rephrased, Does 64-bit have a future?

Let us know in the comments.

I’ve mentioned on the PCMech Live show many times my disdain for the fact that if you’re one of the few running a 64-bit processor, your options for native 64-bit applications are few and far between on the consumer end.

Chances are very high that the computer you’re using right now has a 32-bit CPU in it.

Here’s the short-short definition of the difference between 32 and 64 concerning your CPU: Continued