Identifying your Linux version

To identify the linux installation that your hosting service is using try “uname -o”. If you need more details try:

• uname -a
• cat /proc/version
• cat /etc/issue
• uname -r
• cat /etc/*version
• cat /etc/*release
• cat /etc/*config

To understand if it is a 64bit or 32bit system look for a 32 or 64 in the result.

The following strings indicate 64bit:

• x86_64
• ia64

The following strings indicate 32bit:

• i386
• i486
• i686

The command “uname -m” should also indicate the machine type.

If in doubt another indicator is to look at an executable such as “file /sbin/init” where the result may indicate something like “ELF 32-bit LSB executable”.

The performance difference between the two is typically 4% to 10% but can be as high as a modest 20% so stability and availability of drivers is probably a more important consideration.