Which linux version to install: i386 or x64?
Talking about ease of maintanence / software support does it matter what version of linux i386 or x64 version is installed?
Server obviously is 64 bit however i wonder if living with 64bit OS would add any more pain when it comes to finding software updates and software installation.
Linux distro in question is Centos 5, hardware is basic VPS with 384MB.
For a server just use the 64bit operating system
Back in 2006 there were problems getting device drivers.
You're talking about a Virtual Server so that certainly won't apply to you.
All the software you want to run will work on the 64 bit operating system just fine
The links below are the relevant sections from the Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit
32 vs 64 bit
Pros and Cons
- Software Availability
"In x86-64 architecture (AMD64), the majority of the 32-bit operating systems and applications are able to run smoothly on the 64-bit hardware."
With only 384 MB RAM, it's not exactly clear to me why you'd want to go the 64 bit way. You obviously do not need a 64 bit capable OS to address that amount of memory. You may even see increased memory usage due to using 64 bit (for one thing, all pointers are now 64 bits instead of 32). You probably won't gain by using a 64 bit os, except for what you can read in the links provided by giaresu... .
If the hardware is 64bit capable then go for a x86_64 installation. Almost all the packaged software is open and compiled for that architecture. The biggest problems used to be the binary plugins for the browser but now there are 64bit versions of both Java and Flash Player (although this one is still a bit experimental).
For normal usage you won't have any problem, but if you depend on some (closed) 32bit-only application you may want to stick to a 32bit installation. Note that most distros in their 64 version also provide a subset of their libraries compiled in 32bit mode so you can still run 32bit-only application provided that you can find all the packages to satisfy the dependencies (but - at least with Debian - it's pretty easy to convert a 32bit .deb library to a compatibility package installable on the 64bit distribution)