Linux

[pjwinkler]

Hey I'm going to be building a computer soon, and I'm looking into getting Linux until XP64 comes out and I want/need it. So If I'm basically only going to be using this computer for:

-Playing Americas Army
-Playing UT 2004
-Surfing the internet
-MSN messagner

Which is the latest and greatest Linux version for this, and where can I get it?

 

[Klixxer]

Slackware or Arch linux, slim and to the point.

Debian would probably be fine too.

 

[Nothinman]

Any distribution will work find, the differences are pretty much just personal preferance. I highly recommend Debian or Ubuntu, but be prepared to spend some time learning the system if you're used to Windows.

 

[pjwinkler]

Is there any good 64 Linux verions out?

 

[pjwinkler]

64 bit*

 

[Nothinman]

Sure, I run Debian on 2 64-bit architectures.

 

[pjwinkler]

so if I download Debian's latest linux version I could set it to 64 bit? (like how you can change from 16 to 32 bit on the windows xp desktop settings)

 

[Nothinman]

It's not quite that simple with AMD64. If you want a working 32-bit environment in a 64-bit system easily you probably want SuSe or Fedora, they should have the basics working out of the box.

 

[imported_fungus]

I personally use a 64 bit build of Ubuntu on a athlon 64. You can't just switch between 32 and 64 bit, you have to pick a build that is a 64 bit version. You're not going to find much of a performance benefit either way though, until they start writing programs that take advantage of the 64 bit extensions.

 

[Klixxer]

Originally posted by: pjwinkler
so if I download Debian's latest linux version I could set it to 64 bit? (like how you can change from 16 to 32 bit on the windows xp desktop settings)

There are versions of SuSE for 64 bit use and i think Fedora (red hat) has one too, there may be others.

Personally i would use Arch and abs to build it but that's just me.

I haven't had the opportunity to bench the 32 bit code against 64 bit code but it is probably marginal.

A better thing would be to look for a distro you feel comfortable with.

 

[pjwinkler]

OK.. well could someone give me a link to where I can download/order a 64 bit Linux (pick whcich ever you think would best suit my needs). I've never even used linux before but I'm gonna try, so if its a link for downloading you give me could you sorta give me so instructions as to what i need to do?

 

[Nothinman]

Just download a copy of Knoppix first, you can play with it with no installation.