so, i have been looking into the advantages of running 32 bit on 64 bit OS.
i'm currently testing 32 bit firefox and it is absolutely flying!!
it uses considerably less memory, some pages load instantly.

using the exact same profile on both firefoxes and holy shit, the difference is enormous.
i'm starting to think that pushing 64 bit exactly everywhere is a scam by hardware manufacturers.
i get it that you need 64 bit to address more than 4 gb per program but this is completely fine for so many programs.
in rare instances that you need more than 4, you can use the 64 bit version of the program.

try it out guys. i'd like to hear how it works on your machines.

i will start phasing many of my 64 bit programs with 32 bit version where it makes sense.

the main advantage is almost halved memory usage. i'm not yet sure how cpu processing gets affected but for sure it has to work a little bit less in terms of memory.
seems like it would be less efficient in some regards but the gains from the smaller memory footprint might balance those out.

i am only now remembering that i did feel a slowdown in performance when i went over to 64 bit back in 2009 or something but i just accepted it as "the cost of progress" or some other bullshit.