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Re:Firefox 32-bit Linux Support to End in 2026 by kstrauser on Monday September 08, 2025 @03:39PM (#45172906)
That was a transitional time. Intel Core CPUs launched as 32 bit in 2006, and the first Intel Macs around then used them. OS X Lion dropped support for 32 bit Intel in 2011.

So you could very well have bought a decent quality 32 bit system after 2005, although the writing was on the wall long before then.

Re:Firefox 32-bit Linux Support to End in 2026 by zokier on Monday September 08, 2025 @04:07PM (#45173279)
Maybe more relevantly, the first Atom CPUs were 32-bit only and were used in the popular netbooks (eeepc etc) during 2008-2010ish era.
Re:Firefox 32-bit Linux Support to End in 2026 by FirmwareBurner on Monday September 08, 2025 @04:14PM (#45173356)
>So you could very well have bought a decent quality 32 bit system after 2005, although the writing was on the wall long before then.

Not really. With the launch of Athlon 64, AMD basically replaced all their 32bit CPUs lineups with that new arch, and not kept them along much longer as a lower tier part. By 2005 I expect 90% of new PCs sold were already 64 bit ready.

Re:Firefox 32-bit Linux Support to End in 2026 by kstrauser on Monday September 08, 2025 @04:53PM (#45173825)
Intel didn’t do that by 2005, though. MacBooks weren’t the single most popular product line, but they weren’t exactly eMachines.
Re:Firefox 32-bit Linux Support to End in 2026 by FirmwareBurner on Tuesday September 09, 2025 @05:13AM (#45179504)
Macbook market share was irrelevant around 2005 for that to matter in the PC CPU statistics.
Re:Firefox 32-bit Linux Support to End in 2026 by axiolite on Monday September 08, 2025 @05:35PM (#45174331)
> By 2005 I expect 90% of new PCs sold were already 64 bit ready.

You're several years off:

"The FIRST processor to implement Intel 64 was the multi-socket processor Xeon code-named Nocona in June 2004. In contrast, the initial Prescott chips (February 2004) did not enable this feature."

"The first Intel mobile processor implementing Intel 64 is the Merom version of the Core 2 processor, which was released on July 27, 2006. None of Intel's earlier notebook CPUs (Core Duo, Pentium M, Celeron M, Mobile Pentium 4) implement Intel 64."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#Intel_64

"2012: Intel themselves are limiting the functionality of the Cedar-Trail Atom CPUs to 32bit only"

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/no-emt64-on-intel-at...

Intel had 80% of the CPU market at the time.