It looks like 64-bit computing is finally starting to pick up steam, thanks to Microsoft’s latest desktop operating sytem, Windows 7. According to figures recently published by the software giant, the 64-bit version of Windows 7 accounts for nearly half of all Windows 7 installations at 46%, compared to Windows Vista’s measly 11% back in its “glory days.” This might be due to the fact that most prebuilt computers you can buy nowadays come with at least 4GB of RAM, or even if they come with 3GB of RAM or less, some of them still have Windows 7 64-bit installed. Even I, personally, use the 64-bit version of Windows 7 on a couple computers of mine with only 1GB of RAM. I know the point of a 64-bit OS is to make better use of available system memory (32-bit Windows can only read up to 3.25GB of RAM), but a 64-bit OS has other benefits too. Now all that’s left to happen is for our most used desktop programs to come out with 64-bit versions in order to better take advantage of this development. Notably, Firefox and many other popular programs still don’t have 64-bit versions.

[SOURCE | VIA]