Handling 6GB of memory

Yes, Linux can do 64 bit, but it depends on whether you use a 64bit installer disk (assuming you use a distribution like Fedora or Ubuntu). You are also correct that there may be some linux applications that don't have corresponding 64bit versions, but for the most part, if you install stuff from your distribution's repository, it will be 64bit (assuming you are running a 64bit Linux system). Any 32bit programs that you install from your repository will probably also bring in some 32bit support libraries so that they can work properly, thus creating a mixed environment.

If you decide to compile programs yourself, you will probably want to make sure that you get a 64bit version of the source before compiling. However, if you are compiling and installing programs under Linux manually, you probably already knew that!

Good luck.

-Zorak

Fedora x86_64, Ubuntu-amd64 and other x86_64 Linux distributions are 64bit and can address lots of RAM ( effectively 128GB or more - this is a physical system limitation most systems max out at 128GB RAM - Linux can use a lot more )!

As Zorak already pointed out virtually all packages from the official distribution repositories are available in 64bit versions and also 32bit versions. You can install both the 64bit versions and also 32bit versions on the same system and they will coexist peacefully!

"64-bit Linux allows up to 128 TB (140,737,488,355,328 bytes) of address space for individual processes, and can address approximately 64 TB (70,368,744,177,664 bytes) of physical memory, subject to processor and system limitations." $src=wiki

The reference to 128GB applies to servers with 32 240pin DIMM slots 32*4GB DIMMs = 128GB.

Linux does not have any restrictions on how many CPUs, CPU cores or how much RAM you can use.

If you want to use more than a certain number of CPUs or more than a certain amount of RAM then you have to buy a version of windows or windows server that supports that and those server versions usually cost thousands of dollars.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116499

$3,449.99 and is limited to

Even 32bit Linux can use 64GB of RAM with PAE

Make sure you get Ubuntu-amd64-desktop 8.10 or Fedora 10 x86_64 or $distro x86_64