The state of 64-bit Desktop Linux

[Marc Lanctot]

Hi guys,

My main machine at home has really been slow and I realized I made a bad 
purchase 2 years ago. I'm quite sure it was low quality hardware that 
was to blame, a HP Pavilion that came with a Pentium D chip which I'd 
never heard of. I never figured out if Ubuntu was the cause of any of 
the slow down but I do know that when I used Fluxbox over Gnome, or KDE 
applications vs. Gnome applications the slowdown was more tolerable. If 
I left my machine on all the time.. after 2-3 days it became unusable 
unless I rebooted it. It became quite loud too, regardless of how many 
fans I'd used to try to fix the heat problem.

I recently ordered a Dell Precision T3400. It's coming with a 64-bit 
Intel Core 2 Duo (3 GHz) processor. It's a desktop intended to be a home 
machine, user-friendly enough for my girlfriend to use as well.

In the past I've fought with 64-bit distributions. It's not Linux itself 
that was the problem, it was the lack of compatibility for certain key 
applications I'd gotten used to, mainly: Flash and Java browser plugins.

Now I've done the whole having a separate Firefox, or having a 32-bit 
plugin wrapper, or using open flash alternatives. I'm not interested in 
these "hacks". I would like to run Adobe Flash native and Sun's (not 
Blackdown or anything else) Java plugin for Firefox. I ran into so many 
problems that I decided I wasn't ready to run 64-bit Linux on a desktop 
and have been dealing with a 32-bit OS on a 64-bit capable processor.

I've seen recently that Adobe *finally* released support for 64-bit 
Flash in version 10 (beta?).

It seems like after 2 years there's hope for me running 64-bit Linux on 
my desktop.

My questions are, /from your experience/

- I'll need to shrink the partition with Vista on it to make space for 
my Linux partition. I usually use GNU parted. Do you foresee any issues 
with this?

- Is the 64-bit NVIDIA drivers stable and working well (compared to the 
32-bit ones). I'm getting a "256MB PCIe x16 nVidia NVS 290, Dual Monitor 
DVI Capable". The most intense thing I do with my video card is watch 
movies (no games, no video production, etc.) With my current machine, 
even watching a single movie will cause noticeable slow down afterwards.

- Is 64-bit Flash 10 stable and working well?

- Can I use an up-to-date Sun 64-bit Java plugin for Firefox (let's say 
"up-to-date means" 5.0 or later)

- Is there any reason I would install, say, Debian vs. Ubuntu. Of all 
the distros I've tried these two remain my favorite. However, Ubuntu has 
continued to let me down since it came out. I keep using it because it's 
more user friendly for my girlfriend (nice apps for Digital Cameras 
etc.) though I have gone back and forth several times. The main issue I 
have is that it makes a lot of assumptions that slow your machine down.. 
like file system options and running several unnecessary background 
processes that bloat up the system. I've had problem with compiz slowing 
down video as well. Maybe this won't be much of an issue on the new 
machine... or maybe I can just look into a HOWTO for slimming down the 
default Ubuntu.

- Are there any other obvious problems running 64-bit Linux on a Desktop 
I should know about?

Your answers will determine whether or not I stick with 32-bit OS for 
the time-being. Thanks in advance for your help.

Marc

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