Will there be a default 64-bit build soon?

[therube]

I'd just like to state that the state of 64-bit-ness in Windows just sucks.
From all I read, it sucked in XP, must have sucked in Vista, & still sucks in W7.
Windows 64-bit is not all that it is cracked up to be.

IOW, the OS is brain-dead, faulty.
(But then Windows has always been that way. Perhaps not always entirely Windows fault, nevertheless...)

(Eh, just a little rant.)

[LordOfTheBored]

"Compatibility mode" is on 32- AND 64-bit versions of Win7 Pro+. It's little more than an emulator running Windows XP, and certainly an effective way to deal with incompatibilities between versions, but it's not for 32- vs 64-bit issues.

Just to be clear there is an XP VM option with the Pro+ versions but all versions of Win 7 offer "Compatibility mode" from Vista SP2 to Win 95.

Oh, crap. I'd actually completely forgotten about the compatibility layers feature.

[4td8s]

I'd just like to state that the state of 64-bit-ness in Windows just sucks.
From all I read, it sucked in XP, must have sucked in Vista, & still sucks in W7.
Windows 64-bit is not all that it is cracked up to be.

IOW, the OS is brain-dead, faulty.
(But then Windows has always been that way. Perhaps not always entirely Windows fault, nevertheless...)

(Eh, just a little rant.)

though I seriously BEG TO DIFFER on your 64bit Windows comment sucking, especially Windows 7, therube.
New computers with pre-installed 64bit Windows are now more common than several years ago.
my family and I already have new PCs with Win7 x64. sometimes IE x64 does load things slightly faster than
the IE x86/32bit edition.

would be nice if there were 64bit versions of Firefox and Seamonkey for x64 Windows being produced...eventually.

[therube]

> New computers with pre-installed 64bit Windows are now more common

Certainly true.

> IE x64

From what I have heard (so meaningless in that respect) IE 64 runs far worse the x86?

> would be nice if there were 64bit versions of <enter whatever app you want>

And therein lies part of the problem too.
Where are the 64-bit apps? (Yes there are some.)
Then comes the support end of it too, with (me as an "administrator", if you will) needing to have both 32 & 64-bit versions of programs on hand - because one computer takes this & the other takes that.
And then some programs work the same regardless of whether you use the 32 or 64-bit variety, & some work differently (some of NirSoft's come to mind).
And then there are incompatibilities between things 32 & things 64. Like context-menu related & opening a 64-bit app from within a 32-bit app or vice-versa. And on & on & one. The <relative> inability to run 16-bit apps on x64. And lets not forget about (artificial IMO) limits that MS sets in its OS. At this point in time there is (still) no real incentive to use a 64-bit OS. Yes it does even help 32-bit SeaMonkey - somewhat, but not to the point where I should have reinstalled Windows 7 (which I did do) to go from 32 to 64-bit.

[smsmith]

would be nice if there were 64bit versions of Firefox and Seamonkey for x64 Windows being produced...eventually.

Would be nice if all the plugins were 64-bit, too, but as far as I can tell, they aren't. For instance, I couldn't find a way to get PDFs to open in the browser when I used the 64-bit nightly. I switched to the 32-bit nightly and they open fine.

[Philip Chee]

would be nice if there were 64bit versions of Firefox and Seamonkey for x64 Windows being produced...eventually.

Would be nice if all the plugins were 64-bit, too, but as far as I can tell, they aren't. For instance, I couldn't find a way to get PDFs to open in the browser when I used the 64-bit nightly. I switched to the 32-bit nightly and they open fine.

http://www.ghacks.net/2011/10/27/firefox-pdf-js-extension-to-open-pdf-documents-natively/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pdfjs/

PDF.js is an experimental project that brings PDF reading capabilities to your browser.
Note: This is an early-stage prototype. Several documents might not render properly.

Should be a SMOP to get it working in SeaMonkey.

Phil

[RDaneel]

For those playing along from home, there are now 64-bit released versions of both Flash [player] and Silverlight plugins!

I now have 64-bit IE9 with both of these plugins, so I get sites that use flash, as well as, oh... Netflix.

So, the last "ecosystem" reasons for not wanting to run 64-bit Mozilla browsers have disappeared - where are the builds (nightly, beta, or release)?

[James]

There will not likely be 64-bit builds of Firefox for Windows until Firefox 12.0 at earliest for example.

[RDaneel]

I sure am glad we have this "rapid release" schedule... think how long this could take otherwise!

[DanRaisch]

Oh, I see. I have way too many plug-ins because the only ones I might ever possibly want or need are Flash and Silverlight. Darn, why didn't I think of that.

[RDaneel]

Well, sure, there are a zillion plugins one could have (or want to have) - especially if you are a FF user instead of a SM user.

But I think my main point is valid - these 2(*) have been the key deal breakers for a really large chunk of browser users - without them, too many sites appear "dead" or even unusable... and who would want to be without Netflix these days?

* Plus, of course, NoScript to retain some control over what happens while you are surfing.

[4td8s]

There will not likely be 64-bit builds of Firefox for Windows until Firefox 12.0 at earliest for example.

what kind of builds? the aurora/beta builds? I know certain nightly builds of FF 12 were available in 64bit for Windows.

even Opera had produced it's own set of 64bit builds for Windows in mid-December 2011 which also included OOPP.

[James]

There will not likely be 64-bit builds of Firefox for Windows until Firefox 12.0 at earliest for example.

what kind of builds? the aurora/beta builds? I know certain nightly builds of FF 12 were available in 64bit for Windows.

I am talking about Officially supported Release builds and not the ones on Nightly channel (64-bit for Windows) as those are only for testing and to help catch breakage as it is possible to break 64-bit without breaking 32-bit and reverse.

And in case you think they are officially supported due to being on Nightly.https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Supported_build_configurations

[Psychonaut]

A somewhat belated update: Edmund Wong says that providing 64-bit GNU/Linux binaries is on his TODO list for after two betas of SeaMonkey 2.48 are released. The first of these betas was released on 15 April.

[frg]

Just assume that it will not happen this year. The current infrastructure is going away and we need to put a new one independent from mozilla up.