Hi my name is mel and I'm not exactly new to linux. I have been using it for four or five years. Mainly trying to learn the system and do some simple word processing in it, listening to music, and such. My question is, since so much of what you find on the internet about linux is old, is there enough programming available in 64 bit to justify upgrading my sys. I have an amd sempron sys and it seems to slow to run the new version of KDE. I like the complete suite of programs offered by KDE over Gnome, but I just can't run the new desktop.

Hi and welcome to LQ. I don't think there's any reason why you couldn't run x86_64. 90% of the apps have their 64bit versions. If not, you can easily install multilib environment. I've been running 64-bit systems since 2006.

I wouldn't agree that much of what you find on the internet about linux is old. It all depends how you look for it. I doubt that going 64-bit will increase your KDE performance though. What are the exact specifications of your computer?

It is an Hp 304w. It has an athlon xp 1800 cpu; with 266 mhz front side bus; 1 gb memory, running debian 6.0.3.

Its not a sempy, its an athlon. AFAIK there was no 1.53GHz sempron.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...ph07963&dlc=en

I'm not suprised that KDE 4.X doesnt run well on that machine. If you are using the S3 Graphics ProSavage8 in the Via KM 266 chipset it would make things far worse for KDE 4.X.

BTW, you dont have to worry about x86-64- it will not run on your machine, it is 32-bit only.

Yes I realize this machine is 32 bit. I was thinking about an upgrade to a 64 bit machine. Also I realized it is an athlon machine as soon as I thought about it, I used to have a sempron equipped machine. Thanks for the help I just wondered if spending some money on an upgrade would be worth it. Seems like you're saying there's quite a bit of software for 64 bit operation.

If you want to run KDE 4.X, then it would be worth it IMO.

Only problem is that you will need a new board, new CPU, new RAM, new video card (if you get a video card), and probably a new power supply and a new HDD and/or optical drive. Pretty much a whole new setup....

BTW, I moved from a athlon XP 2500+ (1.8GHz, 333MHz FSB, 512k cache) to a athlon X2 64 4400+ ages ago. Huge difference. You've got a slower CPU than the 2500+, and the old 4400+ is quite a bit slower than any AMD (or intel) dual-core you will find now.

Also, you dont have to use 64-bit on 64-bit capable x86 CPUs- they run just fine in 32-bit. Not that I install 32-bit on my 64-bit machines.

1 members found this post helpful.

A system that old is not worth the time/money/effort to play with. A good basic computer is like $400.

By the time up upgrade like cascade9 suggests, you'd be out at least a hundred dollars and a week of fooling and it still might not work.

1 members found this post helpful.