32 vs 64 bit 12.04 question?

[cybrsaylr]

Just installed 32 bit 12.04 Precise on and old P4 Dell single core 2.8GHZ PC with 1GB of ram, that does not have 64 bit architecture capability. Took about 30 minutes and all appears well. Then had to d/l and install 504 updates of 90.2 megs. This went fine.

The question is recently I did the same install with 64 bit 12.04 Precise on another newer PC and it required around 350 updates of 253 megs!

Expected the volume of meg updates to be the same! Why did those 504 updates on 32 bit PP only go 90 megs, while 64 bit PP took 253 megs?

[KdotJ]

There could have been more updates to the 32bit packages than there were for the 64bit ones for the same software.

Maybe the 32bit image you installed was deployed before the 64bit one... meaning the 32bit one is older and the 64bit one may have already had some of these updates already.

As for the size, it depends on many things - were the software packages there were being updated the same on both systems?

[cybrsaylr]

I downloaded these versions at the same times, back when they were both first released. Was just curious as to why one was 90megs and the other 253 megs in size.

[KdotJ]

It's a good question... perhaps the 64bit binaries are simply larger?

Also I'm not sure about how Ubuntu deploy the image files. Even though you downloaded them at the same time, it doesn't mean that the files were created at the same time, or even on the same day.

Maybe someone could shed some light?