Can ubuntu 64 bit run ubuntu 32 application?

Question

Now all our pcs and laptop are i7, 16GB memory.

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 02 '13 at 02:17

3

Yes it can. The only thing you will start seeing is that any 32 Bit app will end with ":386". Here is an image to give you an idea:

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As you can see, you ca try to install skype using the 32 bit version skype:i386). Same goes for pidgin and any other app that has a 32 bit version in a 64 bit system. Most apps do. If the 64 bit version is not available, they will most likely fallback to the 32 bit one.

answered Apr 02 '13 at 02:17

Luis Alvarado

211,503

I knew mac and windows can run 32 bit app on 64 bit os. But why in ubuntu office website, they are still recommend 32 bit os. Is it not stable? I also notice apple start to sell their 64 bit os 10 years ago. – 王子1986 Apr 02 '13 at 02:41
@王子1986 It's just a recommendation based on the amount of users using 32 bit versus 64 bit. I can say from experience when I moved to 64 bit in 12.10 that most bigger problems with 64 bit were gone. I tested long before 64 bit and still have issues as mentioned here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/19803/for-better-performance-should-i-install-32-bit-or-64-bit/19806#19806 but usign 12.10 and most recently, testing out the 13.04 development version I can surely say that it is very stable. – Luis Alvarado Apr 02 '13 at 03:06

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 02 '13 at 02:05

Yes, assuming the requisite 32-bit dependencies of the application are installed. There are some applications which are 32-bit only, but installable and usable on 64-bit Ubuntu, from the partner repository.

You can't mix architectures within the same process though, so a 32-bit program can't load 64-bit shared libraries, or vice versa.

Can ubuntu 64 bit run ubuntu 32 application?

2 Answers2