Linux Download Terminology
 

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I want to know what it means by ppc, i386, x86 when deciding to download a free version of linux to my Pentium 4 Home Built PC?

These refer to processor architectures. PPC is "PowerPC", otherwise known as G3/G4/G5 Macintosh processors. i386 and x86 are both the same, for any of the Intel-compatible processors since the 386. 486 supports 486s, 586 is Pentium, and 686 is Pentium Pro and newer. For your system, you probably want 686, if available. If not, x86/i386 will work.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux-Newbie and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

This is asked several hundred times. PPC is not an architecture of Intel processors. A PPC or PowerPC and Intel are platforms. These platforms has a series of architecture models. The PowerPC processor is joint project of Apple, Motorala, IBM, Cyrix.

Pentium 4 is known as a 80786. People gets confused with this. If programs are compiled for a 786 with a real compiler instead of gnu gcc compiler, the program will not run on a 686 processor and below. An AMD Athlon64 and Opterons are K8 which are still 686 processors that includes AMD64 instructions.