Re: Can someone...
"help me understand why people aren't running 64 bit OSs already?
"Is it hardware, or the apps are still 32bit, or a combo of both?
It's a bit of both, really.
We humans evolved from flatworms with simple nerve structures, but flatworms found permanent niches and never died out. So it is with processor scaling. Many early pocket calculators were 4-bit, for all I know some still are. If you still want to run Linux on 16-bit, you will need a pretty ancient kernel but they are still around. For many uses, such as IoT devices or industrial controllers, 32-bit is quite a good compromise between economy and power, so it is still popular enough for Linus to maintain compatibility and for say Debian to offer both 32- and 64-bit builds.
Some old apps with unique functionality are still available only for 32-bit. One option here is a 64-bit host with 32-bit emulation, but that does not always work and sometimes it is easier to keep the 32-bit hardware going.
BTW, it is typical of El Reg commentards that a perfectly sensible question gets downvoted by a lot of opinionated goons, sorry I can't do much about that, save ripping the piss out of their mixed-metaphor kneejerk willies. (and I have been collecting so few lately, I am obviously not challenging enough preconceptions, so let's hope they oblige me with a few more).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
