Linux on an AMD64 box...

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 09:56:59AM -0400, William O'Higgins Witteman wrote:
> My wife's computer was in the shop this past week (the motherboard went
> blooey) and she's been logging into my Linux desktop with an account of
> her own.  Well, it should surprise no one here, but she'd like to
> switch, and "just have Windows once in a while, for some software".  I
> explained dual booting and virtualization as a couple of choices, and
> she's decided that she wants to dual boot.  

Most people I know eventually find dual booting a pain because you have
to stop everything you are doing and switch.  You often end up only
using one or the other.  With virtualization (like vmware) you are much
more likely to use both since you can use each for what you like it best
for and you can learn new things slowly.  If you have to switch back for
a lot of things all the time, you really end up just staying with the
one you are most comfortable with (my machine hasn't booted windows in
over 2 years, even though it is installed.  I just can't be bothered to
do it).

> I am terribly pleased, but I want it to go well, so I thought I'd ask
> here for any gotchas on running Linux on the AMD64 architecture.  I've
> heard a few things, like Firefox having to run in 32-bit mode (or is
> that just Flash?  I don't remember) but I don't know how you'd set
> something like this up.

Just flash, and any other non-free plugins that only come in 32bit.
There are people working on getting 32bit plugins to work in 64bit
browsers but I am not sure if they are done yet.

> I plan to use Debian, because that's what I use and I know it best, and
> so I'd love to hear any advice about getting that set up so she
> experiences minimal disruption - the whole point of running Linux for
> her is that it's easier, more flexible and more secure, so if it's a big
> hassle she'll go back to what she knows.

Well if you go with Etch, amd64 works rather well.  For Sarge it was
unofficial, and it does have some things lacking.

--
Len Sorensen
--
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