Q:

32 or 64 bit Ubuntu as a guest in Mac OS X and VMWare Fusion?

I will be using an Ubuntu VM in Mac OS X with VMWare Fusion but I'm not sure which version will give me better performance (32 or 64 bits). 
I believe the 32 bits version should take up less memory, but I'm not sure. What do you recommend?

A:

Unless you plan on giving the VM more than 4 gigs of memory, there's no need to use the 64-bit version. A 64-bit operating system can address more memory than a 32-bit operating system, but if you have less than 4 gigs available, then it doesn't matter, since a 32-bit OS can address that much. They should both give you equal performance, but some software is not available for 64-bit linux and is for 32-bit linux, so you would probably be better off with the 32-bit version.

