Sometimes, as a long time and, many would agree, enthusiastic proponent of desktop Linux, I just want to cry. Or shout. Or curse. I know the Linux and open source community generally sucks at promotion, marketing, and doing anything else that might help the image of Linux and FOSS, but do we really have to apologize for every little thing, including those that aren't our fault.
In case you haven't figured it out, I would be the Linux loving/pushing friend who talked the 64 bit owning friend into installing Ubuntu; yes, they still went ahead with it, despite the rousing endorsement from the Ubuntu site.

Other than Flash (which mostly works), what are the problems with runing a 64 bit desktop OS on your 64 bit machine? I am writing this on a notebook with a 64 bit AMD dual-core processor with 4 GB of RAM and for the most part, I don't have a lot of gripes. I figure that if I can chat with people on Skype with video, things must be working pretty well. Oh, and Flash is working just fine.

It seems as though Ubuntu is saying, "Yeah, we know we're half way through the alphabet on these animal-themed releases, but we still haven't quite figured out this 64 bit processor stuff. If you want to play it safe, downgrade to 32 bit or run something other than Linux."

No, no, no! Look