Hi guys,

Now we are getting to see more and more support for 64-bit operating systems, and the fact that nearly all new hardware sold now is 64-bit, I am wondering if anyone knows whether the main screen reader manufacturers are going to start providing 64-bit versions?  I ask this specifically due to the fact that Windows Server 2008 will predominately be 64-bit, from what I have read in the press, we have Exchange 2007 out now which is “64-bit only for production environments”, and would like to know that when I am forced to upgrade the servers, that I can still run the access technology on them?

I have been using RedHat on 64-bit hardware for a couple of years now, and other than a couple of issues due to having both X86_64 and I386 packages on the same system causing issues when upgrading, it has gone fairly well.

In contrast, we tried our first Windows Server 2003 X64 box a couple of months ago.  This was just a management box running backup jobs, but it broke after a couple of days with stop errors which prevented the OS from booting.  Further investigations with Dell highlighted there was a problem with the fact we were using network bonding/teaming, and we were using a Broadcom NIC card, which was provided obviously with the system.  We then played a bat and ball game with Dell, as they said it was an issue with the Broadcom driver etc.  In the end, we managed to get in and disable the relevant adapter, and the issue went away, but it wasn’t entirely a good start for our Windows 64-bit adventures J.

Anyone else had any experiences they wish to share, or comments?

Andrew.