Ubuntu 10.10 32bit or 64bit for web server?

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GJSNeptune

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Just (finally) ordered the parts for a web server. Now I'm wondering which version of Ubuntu 10.10 to slap on it. Should I stick to the larger community for 32bit, or future-proof with 64bit?
 
Ordered 4GB of memory for it, but surely it isn't solely dependent on that. Aside from my WHS box, I've been using 64-bit for a couple years now. It's the way things are moving, no?

It wouldn't be serving anything taxing at first. It's a homemade multimedia CMS. I plan to host audio and video eventually.


Parts:
Silverstone SG05B
i3-540
Intel BOXDH57JG LGA 1156 Intel H57 HDMI Mini ITX
G.Skill 2x2GB DDR3-1333
 
FWIW I installed Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS 64bit on my web server in 2010, and I haven't run into any issues with it being 64bit.
 
64-bit. If ever you do plan to add more ram at least you'll be able to. 64-bit also allows for bigger integers which could actually be an issue with very large databases, programs etc...
 
Actually a 32bit CPU can support up to 64GB of ram using the PAE enabled Linux kernel. Each individual process would be limited to 4GB however.

The 3.25GB limitation in 32bit Windows is an artificial limitation. Which is why 32bit Windows server has no problem supporting 8GB+.

It looks like based on the Apache benchmarks you would want to go 64bit for performance reasons.
 
No reason not to go with 64-bit. Most server apps in the Unix world have been supporting 64-bit architectures (MIPS, SPARC, Alpha...) for years before AMD64 came out.
 
The only reason not to go with 64-bit is if you want to use it as a desktop. There's still problems with Adobe Flash on 64-bit systems (though I think Ubuntu has resolved this by now). The only other thing to watch out for is making sure that all your libraries and compiled software stays 64 bit so you don't have to make a multilib environment. This won't be a problem if you're getting all of your software through the Ubuntu repos, but might become an issue if you want to use debs or compile your own stuff.
 
Also, LAMP or XAMPP for this Ubuntu 10.10 web server? I'm used to developing with WAMPserver if that helps in choosing.
 
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If I remember correctly, Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS let me choose to have MySQL, Apache, PHP, etc to be installed when I was installing the OS. Otherwise you can do an apt get blahblah to install them.

What's the advantage of using a prepackaged version like LAMP or XAMPP?

I can understand the benefit of WAMP and XAMPP on Windows, because it can be a PITA to set them up separately. But on Linux it is much easier.
 
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