New Computer, what should I install?

[tbs-Gb/NUjX2UK8 at public.gmane.org (TheBlueSage)]

On Thu, 2007-05-17 at 13:14 -0400, markw-FJ05HQ0HCKaWd6l5hS35sQ at public.gmane.org wrote:
> After our discussions, I decided to buy an AMD Athlon 64X2 6000 dual core
> system. (Barebones + video + 4G RAM) (Oh! Does anyone remember when hard
> disks were 4G? But I digress)

I have Linux running on an AMD 64 bit HP PAvilion 9000. Took a lot of
time tweaking it...

> 
> I am currently using Kubuntu 6.10 on my desktop, CentOS 4.4 on my servers,
> RedHat RHEL 4.4 at work on one machine, Microsoft Windows XP at work on
> another machine, Slackware on my robot project, and Kubuntu 6.10 on my
> laptop.a, I run a server with dual AMD 64bit opterons, and it 

Ubuntu/Kubuntu failed to install correctly on the machine, 6.06 and 6.10
(dont know abut 7.04). If you want to try 7.04, make sure you download
the 'Alternatives' .iso with OEM and 64bit installs on it. The standard
one will not work.

Fedora installed, but with problems, and as I hate the RPM package
manager and dependency issues with different repositories, I wiped the
install after noting that it worked (yes I had time on my hands at the
time)

Debian Etch installed easily, and understood the 64bit environment.
Installation was sweet, clean, and quick (not something I expected from
Debian (though I have been a fan of Debian fiddling for years, this was
almost too easy)

> 
> (1) Is Linux 64bit "real?" i.e. everything works, or is it 90% of
> everything works and some don't?
> 
everything works from a server standpoint, I run a server with dual AMD
64bit opterons, and it is sweet sweet sweet.
Some userland apps dont work, like the flash plugin for firefox, but
there are alternatives, and it may be that Adobe's latest release works.

> (2) If I have 64bit Linux, will 32bit apps run?

yes, you can install a 32bit wrapper (Install the 32bit libs, can
remember what, but it was an easy google)

> 
> (3) If I have 64bit Linux, will GCC/G++ target 32bit environments?

not that I am aware of. I have compiled muc stuff for 64bit o nthe
server. What it will not do is compile stuff written for i*86 32 bit.
I found this out when trying to install citadel on the 64bit machine,
and the only tarball was for a i386 32 bit environment.


> 
> (4) Should I just use 32bit until 64bit is real (ignore if #1 is "yes")
> 
nope, unless it is a critical machine (live production) then you should
really run it as 64bit and tell the maintainers of programs that dont
work what is going on and how to fix them. In good hippy speak "Give
back to the comunity doood !" :)



> What's your personal experience with 64bit Linux?
> 
peachy for 99% of what I do server side, and peachy for 98% of what I do
on the desktop. Desktop wize as yet I cannot get Beryl to work, but then
it took several days on a 32bit Intel machine, so I cant really put htat
down to 64bits...

YMMV


Richard



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