Why is the 32-bit version the default?

mscha

I installed Vivaldi on my new PC a few months ago, and just now I noticed in the task manager that it's 32-bit.
Looking at the download page, it appears that the 32-bit version is downloaded by default. And if you look by platform, there is a 64-bit version, but the 32-bit version is “recommended”.

Why is that? It's 2018, shouldn't 64-bit be mainstream by now?
Are there any disadvantages of running the 64-bit version?

Hadden89

@mscha Always used the 64bit since it was "experimental".
For what I know, 32bit use less ram but could be slower on 64bit os; while 64bit consume more ram but is faster.

I think download page should show both by default with something like "choose 32bit if you are unsure" and "64bit" version.
And few lines explaining which is better depending on your machine.

iAN CooG

@mscha said in Why is the 32-bit version the default?:

Why is that? It's 2018, shouldn't 64-bit be mainstream by now?

Not until 32bit Windows is dead and unused worldwide. While 64bit Windows can run 32bit exes without problems, the other way isn't true, so it's safer to give the 32bit version to everyone than risking to give a 64bit version to those still running 32bit Windows, like me; I won't switch to 64bit unless I really need more than 4gb RAM, which is not the case for me right now.

Case

@mscha said in Why is the 32-bit version the default?:

Why is that? It's 2018, shouldn't 64-bit be mainstream by now?
Are there any disadvantages of running the 64-bit version?

It should indeed. And it actually has been for years outside of Windows. But due to the overwhelming amounts of 32bit applications on Windows, with the majority of these never even getting a 64bit version, the move to 64bit is happening very slowly on Windows. Browsers have only fairly recently joined the 64bit club (in part also due to the fact that things like Flash were not really available in 64bit and 64bit browsers couldn't use their 32bit versions), and due to this, the 32bit browser versions for Windows tend to be in a considerably more mature state than their 64bit counterparts. That's why 32bit is still considered the recommended version - you're less likely to run into issues using it. The gap is obviously closing now, but it will take some time.

@ian-coog said in Why is the 32-bit version the default?:

I won't switch to 64bit unless I really need more than 4gb RAM, which is not the case for me right now.

I guess you're not using many tabs in Vivaldi. My Vivaldi alone easily eats up 4 gigs of RAM, in fact it was one of the main reasons I went from 8 gigs to 16 (like two years or so ago, nowadays, having 32 gigs wouldn't seem unreasonable to me).

iAN CooG

@case said in Why is the 32-bit version the default?:

I guess you're not using many tabs in Vivaldi.

you are free to use your available resources as much as you want, I always close a tab after finishing using it and rarely have more than 4 open. I find myself often saying "Why the heck I left these 2 tabs open if I'm looking at another?" and close them. If I want to go back to those, I just reopen them later from history or trashcan and all the other ways to reopen previously visited urls.

Case

@ian-coog said in Why is the 32-bit version the default?:

you are free to use your available resources as much as you want

Why thank you You absolutely are, indeed. I was just really surprised to see someone in 2018 and on a forum like this say they don't need more than 4 gigs of RAM when 8 gigs seems to become a bare minimum for any reasonable desktop work years ago and 16 gigs is the norm. But if a bit over 3 gigs of available RAM is all you need for what you do, then more power to you.

Para-Noid

@mscha The only reason is that as long as there are 32 bit machines expect to see 32 bit software.
As stated previously you can run 32 bit software on a 64 bit machine but not the other way around.
Personally I run the 32 bit version of V on a Win10x64 system.

Believe it or not some people are still using XP, Vista and Win7. All of which are no longer supported or on life support.

iAN CooG

@para-noid yes, I'm still on win7 and until this pc works I don't even see why changing, never "fix" something that works, and seeing the disaster win10 is, I'd rather not touch it with a telegraph pole any soon

mscha

The home page already detects the operating system when presenting a download link. Can't it also detect 64-bit windows (user agent contains Win64 or WOW64) and present the Windows 64-bit download in that case?