Distribute 32 and 64 bit compiled applications

Question

Most of the software you can download over the internet for free, provide both 32 bit and 64 bit versions. But since most of them do not require to address so much memory, what is the advantage to this double distribution, since the moment 32 bit application runs perfectly on 64 bit systems? Do I miss something? thank you

Answer 1

Even though there might be no technical reason to have a 64-bit version right now 32-bit apps support will slowly decline and so it's time to start porting. If they just refuse to have a 64-bit version until it is absolutely required they will have to port it very fast (not only change the code but also test that everything works which is far from trivial and far from fast). So it's kind of a way to have a slow transition - they already ported the code and now they are kind of testing it so that when 32-bit code can no longer run they are fully prepared.