It has been pointed out to me that the output of the version() function
is becoming more confusing in face of mixed 32/64 bit environments.
Output like i486-pc-linux-gnu just says what kind of kernel the build
environment has, not whether you actually have a IA-32 build.
Conversely, amd64-pc-linux-gnu could very well be a 32-bit build.
Solaris similar issues. Moreover, there does not actually seem to be a
way to find out whether you have a 32-bit or a 64-bit build (except by
using OS tools).
I'm not quite sure yet how to address this. Do others have similar
experiences or certain information requirements? Other ideas?