I'm pretty sure 64 bit perl won't run unless you are running a 64 bit OS. I've never heard of a 64 bit program being able to run under a 32 bit OS. And if it does work, it's running in a virtual machine emulator which just slows things down. It would probably be slower than 32 bit on 32 bit.

A 64 bit program will be looking for 64 bit libraries and hooks into the OS that simply don't exist.

I too have 64 bit processors, but only running 32 bit OS's. I have successfully run 64 bit Kubuntu on a spare drive.

The predominant advantage of 64 bit over 32 bit is memory. 32 bit is limited to 2^32 = 4 gigabytes of ram. 64 bit can theoretically have 2^32 times more ram. When the 386 came out nearly 30 years ago, 4 gigabytes seemed an ungodly amount of ram when only 8 megs was commonplace.

But, it really won't do much good unless you have at least those 4 gigs of ram.

You're right in that you should be able to learn XBasic just fine should you choose to. Once you know how to program in one language, the basic concepts stay the same for others. It's just a matter of learning how the language implements those concepts. I may not have played with as many languages as you, but I've had the same experience. When I set my mind to it I'm fine. But I have to say, I find perl more confusing than machine code!!

And we have discussed the CPU hogging before. XB can be CPU friendly, even when running 100%.

Windows 7 may be the last windows I ever use, unless M$ realizes its mistake win win8 and goes back to 'normal'.

Which reminds me, I keep hearing that the desktop/PC is dying/dead. Yeah, right! Maybe all the n00bs and dw33bs and AOLers will switch to tablets, but real computer users will still use desktops. Just about nothing I do could be done as efficiently or at all on a tablet, save maybe internet stuff.

BTW, do you like Weird Al Yankovic?

It's all about the pentiums, baby!!! Totally dig this song.

Brian

It's all about the Pentiums, baby
Uhh, uh-huh, yeah
Uhh, uh-huh, yeah
It's all about the Pentiums, baby
It's all about the Pentiums, baby
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
Yeah

What y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin' at Hewlett Packard?
Workin' at a desk with a dumb little placard?
Yeah, payin' the bills with my mad programming skills
Defraggin' my hard drive for thrills
I got me a hundred gigabytes of RAM
I never feed trolls and I don't read spam
Installed a T1 line in my house
Always at my PC, double-clickin' on my mizouse
Upgrade my system at least twice a day
I'm strictly plug-and-play, I ain't afraid of Y2K
I'm down with Bill Gates, I call him "Money" for short
I phone him up at home and I make him do my tech support
It's all about the Pentiums, what?
You've gotta be the dumbest newbie I've ever seen
You've got white-out all over your screen
You think your Commodore 64 is really neato
What kinda chip you got in there, a Dorito?
You're usin' a 286? Don't make me laugh
Your Windows boots up in what, a day and a half?
You could back up your whole hard drive on a floppy diskette
You're the biggest joke on the Internet
Your database is a disaster
You're waxin' your modem, tryin' to make it go faster
Hey fella, I bet you're still livin' in your parents' cellar
Downloadin' pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar
And postin' "Me too!" like some brain-dead AOL-er
I should do the world a favor and cap you like Old Yeller
You're just about as useless as jpegs to Hellen Keller

It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)

Now, what y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin' at Hewlett Packard?

Uh, uh, loggin' in now
Wanna run wit my crew, hah?
Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?
They call me the king of the spreadsheets
Got 'em printed out on my bedsheets
My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box
You say you've had your desktop for over a week?
Throw that junk away, man, it's an antique
Your laptop is a month old? Well that's great
If you could use a nice, heavy paperweight
My digital media is write-protected
Every file inspected, no viruses detected
I beta tested every operation system
Gave props to some, and others? I dissed 'em
While your computer's crashin', mine's multitaskin'
It does all my work without me even askin'
Got a flat-screen monitor forty inches wide wide
I believe that your says "Etch-A-Sketch" on the side
In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user
You've got your own newsgroup, "alt.total-loser"
Your motherboard melts when you try to send a fax
Where'd you get your CPU, in a box of Cracker Jacks?
Play me online? Well, you know that I'll beat you
If I ever meet you I'll control-alt-delete you
What? What? What? What? What?

It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
It's all about the Pentiums! (It's all about the Pentiums, baby)
Now, what y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin' at Hewlett Packard?
What??