64-bit Linux Recommendations

[walla]

Hello.

I recently installed a 64-bit AMD processor and am looking for ways to take advantage of it.

I would like to find a good Linux distro that support 64-bit processing, while doesn't cost me anything. I downloaded the personal version of the latest SUSE linux, but found it was only supporting 32 bit (and i'm not going to buy the professional version for 64 bit).

Please if you would, offer some suggestions or lead me to some good sources of information. I am looking for personal preference, yet like it to be stable and main stream. Sorry, I am new to the Linux scene but hope to replace windows if i can.

Thanks!

 

[Ralphing]

Edit: Whoops, I deleted my posts content on accident.

I'm currently running the 64 bit version of Suse 9.1 on a MSI K8N-Neo2 platinum and allis running great. I've had no probs with the Nvidia drivers for my 6800 either.
Here's a link to some suse mirrors (x86_64 is the 64 bit version).

 

[Nothinman]

I wouldn't worry about running full 64-bit yet, there's still a lot of things that need work porting (mostly big things like O) and the benefits are minimal. And because you will undoubtedly need to run a 32-bit app eventually you'll need to have 2 installations of most libraries, a real waste of disk space IMO.

I would just run Debian i386 for now.

 

[skreet]

Build your own kernel and software www.gentoo.org .
Also I belive ubuntu-linux has a 64-bit build www.ubuntu.org

Linux sucks. My toys dont work on it.

 

[Nothinman]

Linux sucks. My toys dont work on it.

Maybe you should get better toys, all of mine work fine.

 

[KB]

Fedora core http://fedora.redhat.com/ has a 64 bit version thats free.

 

[drag]

Suse, Fedora, Gentoo, Mandrake all have 64bit versions....

 

[walla]

Build your own kernel and software www.gentoo.org .

Heh. I'm having trouble figuring out how to install Firefox let alone worry about building a kernel.

In real terms, am I going to be able to notice a big difference between 32/64 bit linux? Speed wise? I guess I don't do a lot of computation-intensive work on it yet.

And if my app isn't compiled for 64-bit optimization, am I going to get any sort of benefit. I would love to run matlab at lightning speed but I don't know it could make use of a 64-bit architecture. Could it?

Forgive my ignorance, this is my attempt to learn

 

[Derango]

Originally posted by: walla
In real terms, am I going to be able to notice a big difference between 32/64 bit linux? Speed wise? I guess I don't do a lot of computation-intensive work on it yet.

I had 64-bit gentoo installed for a bit a while ago, and for normal desktop usage, it seemed pretty much the same speedwise.

 

[Nothinman]

In real terms, am I going to be able to notice a big difference between 32/64 bit linux? Speed wise? I guess I don't do a lot of computation-intensive work on it yet.

Doubtful.

And if my app isn't compiled for 64-bit optimization, am I going to get any sort of benefit

If it's not compiled with a 64-bit target it'll need to run in 32-bit mode.

I would love to run matlab at lightning speed but I don't know it could make use of a 64-bit architecture. Could it?

I'm sure it could, but whether anyone's done the work yet or not I wouldn't know. If it's a closed source app, I doubt it.