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Old 10-30-2005, 05:30 AM   #1
mmarkvillanueva
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Question Which 64-bit Linux is an alternative to Slamd64/Slackware?


I'm a Slackware user and planning to buy a new CPU with 64-bit processor.
Unfortunately, Slackware doesn't have a 64-bit version,
though an unofficial port to 64-bit, Slamd64 is available.

Since, it is unofficial, just in case I mess out with this distro,
which 64-bit linux distro may be chosen as an alternative?

Here are some points on picking on my preferred distro

1. Easy to install. Less hardware conflicts (like installing
in a SATA HDD, configuring sound and video, etc.)

2. Perfect for developers. Has compilers, interpreters, and
programming tools. Slackware has GCC, Perl, Python,
Java!, MySQL, KDevelop, Glade, QT Designer, all the
tools I need.

3. Simple. As much as possible, user of the distro will feel that
he is using a UNIX-based OS. Unlike other distro
that immitates Windows.
(*May ignore this criteria if not applicable to my choices)


Which among the following should I pick?

1. SUSE
2. Mandriva
3. Ubuntu/Kubuntu
4. Others (Please specify)

Note that I'm not saying that Slamd64 is unstable or something
I just want to be ready in case problems arise to the extent that
my Slamd64 installation will become unusuable.
 
Old 10-30-2005, 05:56 AM   #2
akudewan
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Personally, I'd say Ubuntu. Very easy to use. And practically worked out of the box. sudo and apt-get were a welcome change for me.

Edit: You might need the "dev" packages to compile things from source.

Last edited by akudewan; 10-30-2005 at 05:57 AM.
 
Old 10-30-2005, 09:07 AM   #3
piete
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A friend of mine swears by SuSE, and with OpenSuSE 10 just out, there are plenty of CoolThings(tm) to play with!

On the downside, it's an RPM distro. Some people like them, some people loathe them, and others just don't get on with them; unfortunatly I fall into the latter category. If you can deal with RPMs, then it looks really cool and seems to work exceptionally well ...

For me, it's just not Slackware!

Good luck!
- Piete.

PS: Oooh, why not give them all a go? Back up your home directory and make a couple of 5GB partitions to install one distro after another and see which one works for you!
 
Old 10-30-2005, 10:34 AM   #4
mmarkvillanueva
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Question Can 2 Linux Distro (Dual Boot) share same swap and /home partition?

Oh! and another question here! If ever I'll install two linux (dual boot)
or with Windows XP (triple boot) with 2 linux distros
could i create only 1 swap partition and one partition for /home
that would be shared by the two linux installations, to save hard disk space?
 
Old 10-30-2005, 10:51 AM   #5
cybrjackle
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Out of all the 64bit distros out there, I prefere Fedora/CentOS 4.

Ubuntu/Debian don't use multilib, so if you need some stuff out there that is only for i386, than you have to create a chroot, which I personally thing is ugly, YTMV.

Suse/Open just don't care for Suse

Slamd64, coultn't get the bootloader to install on my box

gentoo, just doesn't do it for me. I run rawhide, so gentoo isn't as up2date for me

Mandrake, just never liked it so i didn't try 64 bit version.
 
Old 10-30-2005, 03:39 PM   #6
AxelFendersson
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Re: Can 2 Linux Distro (Dual Boot) share same swap and /home partition?

Quote:
Quoth mmarkvillanueva:
Oh! and another question here! If ever I'll install two linux (dual boot) or with Windows XP (triple boot) with 2 linux distros could i create only 1 swap partition and one partition for /home that would be shared by the two linux installations, to save hard disk space?
Sharing a swap partition between the two distros would undoubtedly be fine, and a good idea.

Keep your /home folders separate though, otherwise you can have problems with different versions of programs trying to use the same config files.
 
Old 10-31-2005, 03:55 AM   #7
arubin
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I keep my home folders separate but I have found that you can share resources using links. So after I have run thunderbird for the first time in the new distro I replace .thunderbird in the new distro with a link to .thunderbird in the old distro. Similarly .mozilla for firefox .worker for my favourite file manager and documents for my documents. This won't work for everything.
 
Old 10-31-2005, 05:06 PM   #8
spaceballs
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Red face

I have been running Slackware (32-bit version) on my AMD64 processor for about a year now. It seems to run extremely well, and I have not had any issues with it. Should I have?
 
Old 10-31-2005, 05:36 PM   #9
raska
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Quote:
Originally posted by spaceballs
I have been running Slackware (32-bit version) on my AMD64 processor for about a year now. It seems to run extremely well, and I have not had any issues with it. Should I have?
maybe you are not getting all the intended power from your machine, since making a kernel compatible with a 64-bit processor doesn't make it fully compatible with a 64-bit system, am I wrong?
 
Old 10-31-2005, 07:32 PM   #10
linuxhippy
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On my new AMD Athlon 64 I have multiple OSs installed (6 to be exact since I have a 200 GB SATA harddrive). As said above, swap partition can be shared by Linux distros but I have never tried to share my /home partitions. I have Slamd64 installed with Fedora Core 4 x86_64 and prefer Fedora. I love the yum feature it offers to quickly update your system. The repositories are pretty big-even for the 64 bit software. I'd recommend downloading the DVD iso so that you can install in one shot rather than with 4 CDs.
 
Old 11-01-2005, 01:21 AM   #11
Rick485
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I share swap partitions but not /home

I have multiple distros on my computer and share the swap partition but not the home partitons. The reason that I don't share the /home partition is all the hidden configuration files that are in each users home directory. The hidden directories and configuration files can be seen by typing "ls -a" when in any users home directory. The hidden files and direcories all start with a period. I don't know for sure if sharing the hidden configuration files would be a problem, but I prefer not to try. I do however have a couple of other partitions mounted underneath my home directory that I do share such as a partition full of stuff that I have downloaded over that last several years.

At the moment, on this computer I have Slackware 10.2, Slamd 64 10.2, the AMD-64 verison of Ubuntu 5.04 and the AMD-64 version of CentOS. I also plan to add the AMD-64 version of SuSE 10.0 because I have seen several good reviews of it lately. I wanted to find out which is best for desktop use. What I have finally decided is that they are all great distros for desktop use and all run well on my AMD Athlon 64 computer (but, I haven't used Slamd 64 much at all yet). I have not really spent enough time recently with anything other than Slackware and Ubuntu so I can not really give a final verdict on which is best. I am still using Slackware as my main distro but am still seriously considering alternatives such a Ubuntu. Ubuntu was totally stable and very easy to install and has a very polished user friendly feel to it.

There is no 64-bit version of Macromedia Flash and, if I am not mistaken, getting it to work on the 64-bit verisons of distros such as Ubuntu can be a problem. If correct, that might be one argument for staying with Slackware. A couple of years ago, I took a class where some of the study material was available on-line and used Macromedia Flash. I was able to view the study material under Firefox while running Slackware. Many websites also use the Macromedia Flash plug-in.

There is no official AMD-64 version of Slackware but, I have not noticed an obvious performance difference between it and the 64-bit distros. The AMD-64 "Cool n' Quiet" powersaving feature is not enabled by default in Slackware but in a thread a few months ago I found out how to enable it. So anyway, I don't have a final verdict yet on which is is best, sorry. I haven't yet used Slamd 64 10.2 enough yet to comment on it. Here are two recent reviews of SuSE and Ubuntu:

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?s...51025010202503
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759...129TX1K0000616

P.S., I also have a partition with PC-DOS 2000 which is a 16-bit OS and even it will run quite well on my AMD Athlon 64 3800+. It is there for when I want to relive that retro experience of what computing was like in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

Last edited by Rick485; 11-01-2005 at 02:40 AM.
 
Old 11-01-2005, 04:17 AM   #12
linuxhippy
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Flash is a problem with 64 bit-they're not progressive enough to ponder beyond the 32 bit world. A work around for this is to use a 32 bit version of Firefox to trick Macromedia into thinking you have a 32 bit pc.
 
Old 11-01-2005, 05:10 AM   #13
mmarkvillanueva
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tnx to all your replies guys! (particularly to Rick485)

it would be better if i install 2 linux in the 64-bit pc. the first one would be the distro that i'm used to (slackware) and the other one will be a free partition so that i may test other linux distro like slamd64 and suse.

ubuntu will be my last resort if all these distro won't work. the advantage of using ubuntu here in the philippines is that many filipino linux users choose ubuntu, (it's free via shipit.ubuntulinux.com and user-friendly perfect for windows users who are new in linux ---> many filipinos use windows. the philippine gov't should take linux as tool in getting rid of software piracy. filipinos should be educated in using FOSS, as other alternative in windows.)

also i'll try to read review about SUSE. i think it's also a good distro. actually i'm not after a user-friendly and idiot-proof distro. the reason why i luv slackware is that, things doesn't work right-out-of-the-box... wierd huh? (when i installed slackware, the windows partition is not automatically mounted, non-root user cannot mount devices and doesn't have sound, encounterd problems in X, cannot connect to net if not root, etc)... because of these problems i've learned a lot about using linux by searching solutions from the web and asking questions in forums (like here in lq!)

right now i'm enjoying linux. i've been using slackware (in my old P2) for 6 months and i'm happy with it. (unlike my windows installations before - i reinstall - reformat windows ANNUALLY because it becomes slow due to virus/spyware etc, plus the fact that my PC is ancient). i appreciate the concept of open-source and free software and share my thoughts to my friends. FOSS will not be successful w/o the community who is willing to share their knowledge most especially to noobs like me.

Last edited by mmarkvillanueva; 11-01-2005 at 05:17 AM.
 
Old 11-01-2005, 05:16 AM   #14
cathectic
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You can use gplflash2 for some Flash videos - it's far from perfect, but complete 'enough' that you watch most videos (although interactive Flash sites are another matter).
 
Old 11-01-2005, 05:32 AM   #15
maginotjr
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Hmmmm ....


64 bit processor only works at 64 bit processing with 64 bits applications. If you dont have any special need or 64 applications to run you will find slamd64 or slackware the same things (talking about 64 and 32 bits processor). What realy gives a good change in this case is where you use a dual processor or quadprocessor (!). So if I was going to buy a new cpu it was going to be an AMD 64 X2 (dual core). But I still going to stay in Slackware because I only use 32bits applications, and even windows have to be an 64bits. And just remembering games works at 32bits too. No 64 bits games yet.

And btw you can alway recompile your kernel and download 64b packages to give 64bits support for you linux. Is just a question of doing yourself.

[ ]'s
ps: where I find the meaning of all this abreviations like BTW, RTFM, etc (these too I know what means )
 
  


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