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Showing posts with label software. Show all posts
Showing posts with label software. Show all posts
Windows 7 way hotter than Vista off the line, now more popular than all OS X versions
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DirectX 11 and how is this related to: Windows 7, Tessellation, DirectCompute, GPGPU
By: Dustin Sklavos
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT DIRECTX 11? DirectX 11 brings features to the table worth getting excited about, and it's entering an environment that's far less hostile than that faced by DirectX 10. While buzz leading up to the release of Windows Vista and the fallout thereafter pretty much buried DirectX 10, Windows 7 is getting great buzz. Better still, DirectX 11 is offering more tangible reasons to support it and be excited about it, and has a better slate of titles coming up for it. Unlike DirectX 10, DirectX 11 also doesn't make a clean break with the previous generation, and will be available for Windows Vista as well.
The one good thing DirectX 10 did was push for unified shaders in graphics hardware. Now let's see what DirectX 11 is going to do with them and the rest of the chip.
HARDWARE TESSELLATION: Probably the feature that I'm personally most excited about is hardware tessellation. This feature is built into DirectX 11 class hardware (like the just recently released Radeon HD 5800 series), and can allow for substantially improved image quality in a very tangible way without a massive performance hit.
So what the heck does it do? Well, taking the understanding that 3D models in games are fundamentally constructed out of multiple triangles, tessellation breaks those basic triangles down into many smaller triangles, thus giving the appearance of a much more complex surface without the massive coding and effort required to produce that model.
AMD released a slide with their Radeon HD 5800 series promotional material that illustrates tessellation in the upcoming (and, at least in the eyes of this writer, hotly anticipated) Aliens vs. Predator game. You'll notice how the shape of the alien model becomes much more complex, and more true to the mythos, as a result.
AMD (ATI) has been pushing tessellation in their hardware for longer than you might remember, and by working with Microsoft have finally had it codified in DirectX 11. This at least stands to be a massive improvement in video quality.
PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS: Thanks to the proliferation of multi-core processors, DirectX 11 can now make true use of multi-threaded instructions. Instead of burying all of the DirectX calls in a single thread and thus hogging a single core, DirectX 11 can properly split work between the cores of the processor itself. Modern games have been surprisingly CPU-dependent, so this ability to take fuller advantage of modern processors can in turn help the graphics hardware perform.
Notebook users should take particular note of this improvement, as mobile quad-core processors are still very power-hungry and somewhat rarefied. Current and upcoming performance mobile graphics parts are hitting performance ceilings with mainstream dual-core processors, so any improvement is going to be an important one.
Also being inherited from DirectX 10.1 is mandatory anti-aliasing support. Existing DirectX 10.1 games are very uncommon and the feature set only works on ATI's Radeon HD 3000 series onward, but DirectX 10.1 has consistently provided substantial performance improvements with anti-aliasing enabled (see the unpatched Assassin's Creed or Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.)
And, of course, the unified shader hardware required by DirectX 10 remains a major change in how graphics hardware is produced but also an improvement as well, with GPUs being much more flexible and able to better utilize their existing resources. These unified shaders are also highly programmable, which leads to...
DIRECTCOMPUTE: The switch to unified shaders resulted in graphics hardware that's surprisingly programmable and flexible in general, to the point where it can actually be used to accelerate applications other than games. Nvidia's been pushing this particularly hard with its CUDA technology, but CUDA only works on Nvidia hardware. DirectCompute is Microsoft's answer in DirectX 11, and provides a vendor-independent means of harnessing the wealth of processing power in modern graphics hardware to handle other tasks.
Of course, this advance is probably the hardest one to see at present, but the fact of the matter is that both AMD and Nvidia are pushing general computing onto the GPU. It's easy to understand why: Graphics chips are extremely powerful, complex pieces of silicon capable of vastly improving the speed at which certain tasks are performed.
The first big push has been with video encoding, and while the road has been a bumpy one, it's yielding fruit. The Badaboom video encoder, for example, gets massive performance improvements from running off of a GeForce's shaders. Likewise, Nvidia's push has resulted in PhysX physics engine acceleration being run off of their shaders as well.
With DirectCompute finally standardizing GPGPU usage (General Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units) on the Windows platform (alongside OpenCL on Macs, Windows, Linux and so on), we'll see this trend push forward and become more common. I'm hesitant to refer to it as a dead end or anything else because the fact of the matter is that the processing power is there, waiting to be harnessed. AMD's pushing it hard. Nvidia's pushing it hard. And Intel's upcoming Larrabee graphics processor is even designed for that level of flexibility.
An important addendum to make here is that DirectCompute may be coming with DirectX 11, but it's compatible with DirectX 10 hardware as well. Your existing graphics hardware may yet have some additional uses in the future.
CONCLUSION: In the end, DirectX 11 looks like it's going to start keeping the promises that DirectX 10 made. Windows 7 is already a hot contender with great buzz behind it (and having been using it for months now I can assure you the buzz is warranted), and DirectX 11 is getting far more support from developers from the get-go than DirectX 10 ever did.
If nothing else pushes adoption of DirectX 11, I personally think DirectCompute is going to wind up being the big winner. Even game developers are looking at ways to use it to speed up other tasks in the game itself. It's very exciting to hear about how this technology is getting put to use.
I'd encourage anyone to upgrade to Windows 7 when it arrives, but even Windows Vista users will be getting in on this action. Still, if you're on Windows XP, the release of 7 and accompanying DirectX 11 is going to make October a great time to switch.
Videos:
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT DIRECTX 11? DirectX 11 brings features to the table worth getting excited about, and it's entering an environment that's far less hostile than that faced by DirectX 10. While buzz leading up to the release of Windows Vista and the fallout thereafter pretty much buried DirectX 10, Windows 7 is getting great buzz. Better still, DirectX 11 is offering more tangible reasons to support it and be excited about it, and has a better slate of titles coming up for it. Unlike DirectX 10, DirectX 11 also doesn't make a clean break with the previous generation, and will be available for Windows Vista as well.
The one good thing DirectX 10 did was push for unified shaders in graphics hardware. Now let's see what DirectX 11 is going to do with them and the rest of the chip.
HARDWARE TESSELLATION: Probably the feature that I'm personally most excited about is hardware tessellation. This feature is built into DirectX 11 class hardware (like the just recently released Radeon HD 5800 series), and can allow for substantially improved image quality in a very tangible way without a massive performance hit.
So what the heck does it do? Well, taking the understanding that 3D models in games are fundamentally constructed out of multiple triangles, tessellation breaks those basic triangles down into many smaller triangles, thus giving the appearance of a much more complex surface without the massive coding and effort required to produce that model.
AMD released a slide with their Radeon HD 5800 series promotional material that illustrates tessellation in the upcoming (and, at least in the eyes of this writer, hotly anticipated) Aliens vs. Predator game. You'll notice how the shape of the alien model becomes much more complex, and more true to the mythos, as a result.
AMD (ATI) has been pushing tessellation in their hardware for longer than you might remember, and by working with Microsoft have finally had it codified in DirectX 11. This at least stands to be a massive improvement in video quality.
Notebook users should take particular note of this improvement, as mobile quad-core processors are still very power-hungry and somewhat rarefied. Current and upcoming performance mobile graphics parts are hitting performance ceilings with mainstream dual-core processors, so any improvement is going to be an important one.
Also being inherited from DirectX 10.1 is mandatory anti-aliasing support. Existing DirectX 10.1 games are very uncommon and the feature set only works on ATI's Radeon HD 3000 series onward, but DirectX 10.1 has consistently provided substantial performance improvements with anti-aliasing enabled (see the unpatched Assassin's Creed or Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.)
And, of course, the unified shader hardware required by DirectX 10 remains a major change in how graphics hardware is produced but also an improvement as well, with GPUs being much more flexible and able to better utilize their existing resources. These unified shaders are also highly programmable, which leads to...
DIRECTCOMPUTE: The switch to unified shaders resulted in graphics hardware that's surprisingly programmable and flexible in general, to the point where it can actually be used to accelerate applications other than games. Nvidia's been pushing this particularly hard with its CUDA technology, but CUDA only works on Nvidia hardware. DirectCompute is Microsoft's answer in DirectX 11, and provides a vendor-independent means of harnessing the wealth of processing power in modern graphics hardware to handle other tasks.
Of course, this advance is probably the hardest one to see at present, but the fact of the matter is that both AMD and Nvidia are pushing general computing onto the GPU. It's easy to understand why: Graphics chips are extremely powerful, complex pieces of silicon capable of vastly improving the speed at which certain tasks are performed.
The first big push has been with video encoding, and while the road has been a bumpy one, it's yielding fruit. The Badaboom video encoder, for example, gets massive performance improvements from running off of a GeForce's shaders. Likewise, Nvidia's push has resulted in PhysX physics engine acceleration being run off of their shaders as well.
With DirectCompute finally standardizing GPGPU usage (General Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units) on the Windows platform (alongside OpenCL on Macs, Windows, Linux and so on), we'll see this trend push forward and become more common. I'm hesitant to refer to it as a dead end or anything else because the fact of the matter is that the processing power is there, waiting to be harnessed. AMD's pushing it hard. Nvidia's pushing it hard. And Intel's upcoming Larrabee graphics processor is even designed for that level of flexibility.
An important addendum to make here is that DirectCompute may be coming with DirectX 11, but it's compatible with DirectX 10 hardware as well. Your existing graphics hardware may yet have some additional uses in the future.
CONCLUSION: In the end, DirectX 11 looks like it's going to start keeping the promises that DirectX 10 made. Windows 7 is already a hot contender with great buzz behind it (and having been using it for months now I can assure you the buzz is warranted), and DirectX 11 is getting far more support from developers from the get-go than DirectX 10 ever did.
If nothing else pushes adoption of DirectX 11, I personally think DirectCompute is going to wind up being the big winner. Even game developers are looking at ways to use it to speed up other tasks in the game itself. It's very exciting to hear about how this technology is getting put to use.
I'd encourage anyone to upgrade to Windows 7 when it arrives, but even Windows Vista users will be getting in on this action. Still, if you're on Windows XP, the release of 7 and accompanying DirectX 11 is going to make October a great time to switch.
Videos:
Snow Leopard 'Guest Account' bug deleting user files?
BumpTop 3D Desktop Gets Unique Multi-Touch Gestures
GIZMODO - For all its new multi-touch goodness, Windows 7 only has about 7 basic gestures. So if you're all about the touch (and say, have a tablet PC) BumpTop's stack of unique new gestures could be a very good thing.
As we've mentioned in the past, BumpTop isn't a new OS or shell replacement, it just adds a 3D workspace to your desktop. The $30 mulit-touch version of the software is available now, but you'll need to have Windows 7 (and a multi-touch tablet, laptop or all-in-one PC). The good news: we're going to see a bunch of those arrive alongside the new OS on October 22.
As we've mentioned in the past, BumpTop isn't a new OS or shell replacement, it just adds a 3D workspace to your desktop. The $30 mulit-touch version of the software is available now, but you'll need to have Windows 7 (and a multi-touch tablet, laptop or all-in-one PC). The good news: we're going to see a bunch of those arrive alongside the new OS on October 22.
NVIDIA Unveils Next Generation "Fermi" GPU Architecture
Game Ported From iPhone to Zune HD in 12 Hours
Gizmodo - Game maker Foundation 42 is one of the first developers to get an app working on the Zune HD, and it looks like it wasn't too difficult a process, taking only 12 hours. This is a good sign.The game, a fun little word puzzler called Wordmonger, is already available on several platforms (iPhone, various desktop OSes) but using the XNA, Foundation 42 was able to port it over to the Zune HD. Now that we know it's not an incredibly difficult process, we've got to question Microsoft's decision to lock the Zune HD to free, first-party apps. Right now, to get Wordmonger onto your Zune HD, you have to download the developer kit and use another piece of software, rather than just heading into the Zune Marketplace and downloading the app.
We hope Microsoft is questioning the decision too—the Zune HD is a really powerful little gadget, and that Tegra chip is capable of some impressive feats. We'd love to see the Zune HD opened up for more developers, and if there's enough buzz Microsoft might eventually do just that.
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Browser-based Office shows its face
CNet - Microsoft plans on Thursday to start public testing for the first browser-based version of Office, although the technology preview is at least as notable for what it doesn't include as what it does offer.The limited test of the so-called Office Web Apps includes versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but not the OneNote note-taking application. And while Excel and PowerPoint offer the ability to edit and create documents, the current Web-based version of Word can only be used to view documents, essentially the same capability it already offers as part of its current Office Live Workspace product.
Microsoft said the Web versions of OneNote and Word share "the same editing surface," and that the technology is still being worked on.
"We made the hard decision to turn off editing in the Word Web App at Tech Preview, in order for people to have the best experience at this early stage," Microsoft said.
Microsoft plans to offer the Web Apps preview first to users of Windows Live SkyDrive, giving them 25GB worth of storage.
The Office Web Apps are scheduled to be launched along with Office 2010--the next version of Office, with both browser-based and desktop programs due out in the first half of next year. The Office Web Apps will be made available to consumers as a free, ad-supported part of Windows Live, while businesses will be able to offer them to workers via their own SharePoint servers or through the Microsoft Online subscription service.
Microsoft said it will have editing abilities for Word and a version of OneNote by the time the Office Web Apps launch in final form. The current technology preview will be made available to tens of thousands of users, with a broader beta planned for later this fall. However, Microsoft would not commit to offering editing abilities for Word by the beta release.
Once finished, the browser-based versions will all offer editing, though not all of the capabilities of their desktop counterparts. Excel and OneNote will feature live co-authoring abilities, while all the Office Web Apps will work only while a user is connected to the Internet.
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Ubuntu 9.10 Will Have Slicker Boot-Up, Software Store
Lifehacker - Ubuntu has released the sixth alpha of its Linux distribution, and it firms up two of the five features we want to see in Ubuntu: a faster, graphical boot-up sequence, and an integrated software store.They're both still in somewhat early shape, but their inclusion in the last Karmic Koala alpha before beta indicates they're here to stay. The new xplash bootup will transition directly from a BIOS boot-up screen—and a newer GRUB chooser, if it's a dual-boot setup—to a graphical loader with a progress indicator, and then straight to the desktop if the user doesn't select a username chooser or password protection. It's not a complete design-forward rethinking of the interface, but it does remove the unsettling experience of watching indecipherable text scroll past as the system boots
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Normal People Can Now Install CableCARD Tuners On Windows 7 PCs
GIZMODO - Finally. Microsoft and CableLabs are finally opened the door to have regular people add in CableCARD tuners by themselves, after they've purchased the PC and set it up. This is good news.What it means to you, theoretically, is that you should be able to go out and buy CableCARD tuners and add them to your Windows 7 machines to turn any old machine you have lying around into an HTPC. Also, they've raised the limit to four tuners per "tuner type", so you can have four digital cable channels simultaneously without any kind of special setup.
There is also a new Firmware update for ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuners to mark copy-freely content—the content you can move around your network and portable devices.
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Zune HD (xYz) positioned to take on Apple, Sony, Nintendo and Google?
Engadget - Sounding too good to be true, the cats at Teamxbox have posted a lengthy piece quoting multiple sources from Redmond and Santa Clara who anonymously spill the beans on what the Zune HD is and isn't. The "digital entertainment handheld," dubbed unanimously as product "xYz" by said sources to emphasize its purpose of bridging the Xbox and Zune platforms, is not a phone (that's Project Pink) but a converged "mashup" of devices like the Sony Mylo, PSP, and iPod touch. The emphasis of the device is not the hardware but the software, services, and entertainment experience if offers while remaingly primarily "a portable game console and media player." It's said to link into Microsoft's Skybox computing services for mobiles and blur the lines between Xbox Live and the Zune and Sky Marketplaces. Even the Xbox 360's NXE interface will be making its way onto the new Microsoft handheld. As Teamxbox summarizes:Buy a song, a movie or a TV show on your Xbox, play the content later on the handheld or the other way around. Play an Xbox Live Arcade game either on your Xbox or in this handheld.
At the moment, we have no way to authenticate any of this beyond what we've brought to the table already. Honestly, having had our hopes crushed by a tepid reaction to market trends from Microsoft in the past makes it difficult to believe all these seemingly fanboi fantasy claims of specs and convergence. However, if true, if Microsoft finally breaks free from the rigid silos of its own making and delivers an integrated living room, gaming, and portable media experience along with a stable Windows 7 computing environment... well, wait this just can't be happening.
Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 Available Right Now
Some interesting information:- There will be not product key limit to install Windows 7 RC1.
- The RC1 will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours.
- Official website to download Windows 7 RC1.
SPANISH ARTICLE FROM "ELPAIS.COM":
Windows 7, disponible para todo el mundo - Microsoft permite descargar a partir de hoy la versión en pruebas de Windows 7, la última versión de su sistema operativo en la que el gigante espera corregir los errores del criticado Vista. Windows 7 release candidate llega como un anticipo muy aproximado de lo que será el nuevo sistema operativo de Microsoft, después del mal sabor de boca que ha dejado a muchos usuarios el Vista.
Al ser la última versión beta, se supone que Microsoft no introducirá cambios mayores en la edición definitiva del sistema operativo y tan sólo se harán pequeñas mejoras. Microsoft prevé que unos tres millones de usuarios descarguen esta versión de Windows 7, que ya ha sido probada en los últimos días por suscriptores de MSDN y Technet.
En teoría, está versión beta no expirará hasta junio de 2010, pero se espera que Microsoft empiece a comercializar Windows 7 mucho antes, posiblemente durante este otoño. El fabricante de ordenadores Acer podría empezar a vender portátiles equipados con Windows 7 el próximo octubre, según la prensa anglosajona.
El gigante del software espera corregir con Windows 7 los errores de Vista, su último sistema operativo lanzado hace dos años y que ha generado más críticas que alabanzas entre los usuarios, haciendo que muchos de ellos prefirieran, incluso, seguir utilizando versiones más antiguas de Windows como XP.
Curiosamente, el nuevo sistema operativo llega con una función llamada Windows XP Mode, que permite a los usuarios y a las pequeñas y medianas empresas ejecutar aplicaciones de Windows XP directamente desde Windows 7.
Además, la última generación de Windows incluye menos alertas y ventanas emergentes notificando riesgos de seguridad potenciales, algo que irritó a muchos usuarios de Vista y que fue, incluso, ridiculizado en anuncios de su competidor Apple.
Otra de las novedades es la herramienta Remote Media Streaming, pensada principalmente para empresas, que permite acceder de manera remota a bibliotecas de medios digitales situadas en la oficina desde cualquier PC con Windows 7.
Finally, Windows 7 Allows You to Change the Logon Background
As you probably know, Windows 7 build 7057, a build recently leaked to the public, sports a new (yet ugly) login UI background. Delivering on the “more customizable” promise, Windows 7 now supports the ability to load images into the background of the login screen without the use of third-party software or manual hacks.Source
Windows 7 Build 7022 Leaks, Packs IE8 and New Enhancements
GIZMODO - The first post-beta version of Windows 7 is up on bit torrent sites everywhere, and actually includes a few benefits over Build 7000, the previous, beta version.The most obvious new feature is the inclusion of Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate, a step up from the previous build's beta edition. But it also includes a bunch of new icons and animations, and apparently the start menu's search option is faster than before.
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Downloadable Dashboard Apps for Cars Coming in 2010
NYTimes.com - Hughes Telematics, which is behind the communications systems in Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz vehicles that are to make their debuts this summer, is headed in that direction. Its next-generation technology, expected to appear in 2010, would allow drivers to install software in their cars, just as iPhones let users download applications to their handsets.For the eco-conscious, for example, an application the company is developing could track your peregrinations and estimate your total carbon emissions. It could offer tips on how to shrink your carbon footprint.
Other applications proposed by Hughes include remotely starting a car, resetting its alarm or unlocking the doors with an iPhone. Unlike wireless key fobs, commands could be sent to the car over the Internet.
Cars equipped with blind-spot-detection video cameras could be used to nab thieves. A vehicle could be programmed to take a picture of anyone near the car during a break-in and then e-mail it directly to a cellphone or computer. (continue here)
Microsoft promises Windows Azure savings
Cnet - Microsoft still isn't quite ready to talk pricing for Windows Azure, but the company says it is increasingly confident there is room for it to make money at the same time customers can cut the cost out of running software on their own servers.
Speaking at a Thomas Weisel investor conference, Microsoft general manager Doug Hauger acknowledged that his case would be more convincing if he could share the hard numbers and promised that those would be coming soon. The talk was streamed on Microsoft's investor relations Web site.
Windows Azure is, essentially, a cloud-based version of Windows that allows developers to write programs that run off of servers that run in Microsoft's data centers.
"People are interested in pricing," Hauger said. "Before they make a decision they want to understand 'is there an economic savings?'... Us saying that (there is) is not necessarily helpful."
Microsoft announced its plans for Windows Azure at its Professional Developers Conference in October and opened the service up for limited testing. The company updated the Azure test code last month.
Hauger reiterated that, in general, Microsoft will price Windows Azure services via a pay-as-you-go model that he promised will be "very, very price competitive" with rivals such as Amazon. Customers will also be able to prepay for Azure usage to get some discounting, he said.
Turn-By-Turn Voice Navigation Comes to Jailbroken iPhones
Six months after the App Store was launched, the iPhone app gray market lives on: turn-by-turn navigation has come to jailbroken iPhones in the form of xGPS.
xGPS uses Google's map data and driving directions, adding a real-time navigation readout and a voice engine. You can also select a map area to download ahead of time, just in case you expect to lose your data connection during the drive. As you can see in ModMyi's video above, the app also supports a number of external GPS units, so 1st-gen iPhone and iPod Touch users can get in on the monotone fun too.
Source
xGPS uses Google's map data and driving directions, adding a real-time navigation readout and a voice engine. You can also select a map area to download ahead of time, just in case you expect to lose your data connection during the drive. As you can see in ModMyi's video above, the app also supports a number of external GPS units, so 1st-gen iPhone and iPod Touch users can get in on the monotone fun too.
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Why You Should Go 64-Bit With Windows 7
Who Should Go 64-bit?
Basically, anyone geeky enough to read this. If you have an Intel Core 2 Duo or newer processor, you've got a 64-bit CPU, and you should install the 64-bit version of Windows 7 to play with. (Here's how. You've got like 5 days left, BTW.) Microsoft itself is pimping 64-bit over 32-bit now and notebook makers have already started pushing 64-bit Windows Vista over 32-bit. Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard will be 64-bit down to its kernel, so you won't be alone by any means. 64-bit is going mainstream.
Why Should I?
To recap in a single word: Memory. With 32-bit Windows, you're stuck at 4GB of RAM, and even then, you're only using about 3.3GB of it, give or take. With 64-bit, 4GB of RAM is the new minimum standard, and with 4GB, you can run tons of applications with zero slowdown. Windows 7 (and Vista for that matter) runs so beautifully with 4GB of RAM you'll wonder how you ever did with less. It makes your system more futureproof too, so you can take your system to 8GB, 32GB or even a terabyte, before too long.
Who Shouldn't Go 64-Bit?
If you're not planning on going to 4GB of RAM anytime soon, you might wanna hold back, since you need 4GB of RAM to take full advantage of 64-bit's memory management. That said, RAM is so disgustingly cheap right now, and has such an intense bang-to-buck ratio, you should definitely upgrade to 4GB if you haven't already. Anyone who runs specialized or older gear (see below) should probably not jump into 64-bit.
64-bit Sniggles
It's true that 64-bit Windows used to be dicey on the driver and compatibility front, but from Vista onward, it's typically nothing you have to worry about. Most new hardware has 64-bit drivers, and even though most applications aren't 64-bit native yet, 32-bit ones usually run just fine.
Still, the biggest issue is hardware. If a gadget doesn't have 64-bit drivers, it won't work with your 64-bit OS, since 32-bit drivers aren't supported. Most non-crusty gadgets should be okay. (Seriously, I've run 64-bit Vista for a year, and now Windows 7, and everything I've tested for Giz plugs in just fine.) But if you run legacy goods, it might be kinda sticky, and you should still double check your gear just to be safe.
There are a few software issues to look out for, too. Google's Chrome, for instance, doesn't play nice with Windows 7 64-bit for some people (like me). Adobe Flash doesn't run in 64-bit browsers, but that's not really a problem—you can just run the regular 32-bit browser instead. iTunes had problems with 64-bit versions of Windows in the past, too (granted, Apple's not the most fastidious Windows app developer out there). Most of these issues have been or will be resolved, but if you use specialized mission-critical software, definitely read up on its 64-bit compatibility.
Really, Go 64-Bit
Really, you'll probably be just fine running 64-bit. A ton of other people will be 64-bit with this generation of OSes/hardware too, so you won't be alone. The benefits of oodles of RAM, given all the crap you're running simultaneously, are just too good to pass up, especially once more apps are 64-bit native. Besides, the more people that jump on the 64-bit Express, the faster developers will transition their apps to 64-bit, and any bumps in the road will be smoothed out. So don't just do it for yourself, do it for everyone.
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