The state of 64-bit Desktop Linux

[Giles Orr]

Hi Marc.

2009/2/11 Marc Lanctot <lanctot-yfeSBMgouQgsA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org>:
> 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.

The Pentium D may run hot, but it's not generally accused of being
"slow" (yes, the Core series is better, but the D is still a lot newer
than a P2).  There's probably some other problem, my first thought
would be to run memtest86 ...

> 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.

I'm running Debian amd64 on a Dell Core 2 Quad, it's been great.  I
_think_, but cannot tell you for sure, that I'm using the 64 bit
flash.  I _may_ be using the 32-bit with wrapper.  Either way, it's
been very stable.  But I've had a bizarre problem with videos on
youtube showing up as a big gray rectangle.  No controls, no nothing,
and a page reload does nothing.  But the next day it'll be fine.

> 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

I'm using Sun's native Java.  Haven't used it heavily, but no problems.

> - 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?

I did this: you may need to follow Lennart's instructions, but I found
that while Vista was unhappy after resizing, it managed to recover on
its own.  Linux tools allowed me to shrink Vista's partition a great
deal smaller than Vista was willing to shrink itself, but if Vista
will go small enough on its own it's probably slightly more reliable
(and less likely to complain).

> - 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.

I'm using a low-end (6200?) dual head nVidia card, following Lennart's
advice from several months ago for compiling the module: I suppose
that means I'm using the Linux driver, not nVidia's own.  I don't have
OpenGL support, but haven't bothered to pursue it as it isn't a big
problem for me.  I have dual head, that's all I wanted.

> - Is there any reason I would install, say, Debian vs. Ubuntu. Of all the
> distros I've tried these two remain my favorite.

I prefer Debian, and run it with fluxbox right now, but the window
manager changes periodically.  But since you need a big dose of
user-friendliness fast, Ubuntu may be the better choice.

-- 
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
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