I am thinking about switching to Slackware, but I have an AMD 64 drive, so I was going to use Slamd64. However, I also want to use KDE, but Slamd64 said that I shouldn't install the KDE package. Is this true? If so, how do I get around it? Also, am I going to run into a lot of package trouble with Slamd64? I might just stick to pure Slackware in that case.

If you are feeling brave you might want to try compiling KDE yourself, i iagine it won't be much different then compiling it on a 32bit cpu, you might also want to wait like I am for Pat V to port the offical slackware to 64 bit, that's what I'm wating for.

If you choose to compile KDE it will take 8 to 15 hours to compile, good luck, ifyou suceed I will only hope you make some packages and contact the author of Slamd64 and see if he is intrested in including it in the next release.

You're gonna be waiting a pretty long time for an official AMD64 port. Probably never. I don't really see Pat trying to release for 2 architectures. I know there is the s/390 port but as far as I know that is not run by Pat himself. Nope its not I just checked. Its maintained by Mark Post. Pat does the i486 release and only that. I don't blame him though. I'm sure there's enough testing for bugs on the official i486 releases and updates. I couldn't imagine bug testing a 64-bit port. That would seem to be just too time consuming for Pat. Thats why slamd64 exists. Some people wanted their favorite distro to run on their 64-bit cpu's. If I were you and I really wanted it then I would say start helping out on the slamd64 project. I too have an AMD64 but am not too concerned about getting a 64-bit slack. Right now 64-bit is still a pain for most developers so there is still not as much Free Software that is 64-bit. When GCC can automatically compile programs into 64-bit programs then that would be the day you see 64-bit hit widespread adoption. Right now though most developers aren't too concerned with it.

Well, I wish I could compile KDE myself, but my knowledge about Linux/programming/etc. is very very limited. I've never tried Linux, and I'm sort of scared of ruining my computer while screwing up the installation. I'll keep it simple and just use good old Slackware, and maybe when I'm more knowledgeable I'll compile KDE for Slamd64.

Thanks guys for the advice, it was all really helpful

I'm not sure where you heard that from. Fred Emmott (the man behind Slamd64) happens to be a KDE developer. My understanding is that KDE is well supported in slamd64.com. In fact, it was TTBOMK one of the first distributions to have KDE 3.4.1, particularly in 64-bit form.

From http://slackwiki.org/Slamd64_FAQ :

Q: "Can I use normal Slackware packages?"

A: "Mostly yes, as long as they don't use Qt/KDE. Libraries can be complicated."

That's where I heard it from

i guess that just means that you'll have to compile things that use QT/KDE yourself.
shouldn't be a prob.

egag

Qt is included in Slamd64, I think with that question they meant packages compiled against i386 Qt that comes with Slackware.
Slamd64-current has KDE 3.3.2 on it.