FWIW, many people run 32 bit kernels on their systems that they've
wanted a stable compiler on.  my main server has been a U10/440 for
the past year and a bit as such, and i have no real plans at this
stage to bother upgrading everything to 64 bit [*].

i've actually done a bunch of testing of 32 bit kernels, 64 bit
kernels, and 64 bit kernels with mostly 32 bit apps.  in summary,
it doesn't matter.  there's no clear performance winner.  it depends
on the application immensely.


not that i _don't_ run 64 bit machines as well - i do, when they're
setup, but my main server runs 32 bit...


.mrg.


[*] though the fact GCC 3 seems to support sparc64 _better_ or at
least has fewer failures building stuff, gives me some pause :-)
(most of these issues are resolved with my recent import of the
latest GCC 3.3.3 prerelease, anyway.)