New Computer, what should I install?

[gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On Thu, 17 May 2007 13:14:15 -0400 (EDT)
markw-FJ05HQ0HCKaWd6l5hS35sQ at public.gmane.org wrote:

> After our discussions, I decided to buy an AMD Athlon 64X2 6000 dual core
> system. (Barebones + video + 4G RAM) (Oh! Does anyone remember when hard
> disks were 4G? But I digress)
Yes. I remember when 32K was a lot of memory.

> I am currently using Kubuntu 6.10 on my desktop, CentOS 4.4 on my servers,
> RedHat RHEL 4.4 at work on one machine, Microsoft Windows XP at work on
> another machine, Slackware on my robot project, and Kubuntu 6.10 on my
> laptop.
>=20
> (1) Is Linux 64bit "real?" i.e. everything works, or is it 90% of
> everything works and some don't?
Yes. Linux has been 64-bit since 1995. very few things do not work.=20
=20
> (2) If I have 64bit Linux, will 32bit apps run?
Yes (on x86_64 boxes). Most distros have both 32-bit and 64-bit
libraries so that 32-bit apps work perfectly.
=20
> (3) If I have 64bit Linux, will GCC/G++ target 32bit environments?
Most certainly.=20
=20
> (4) Should I just use 32bit until 64bit is real (ignore if #1 is "yes")
No. Use a 64-bit OS. With a 64-bit OS, you have access to both 32-bit
and 64-bit apps.=20

> What's your personal experience with 64bit Linux?
My laptop is 64-bit (AMD Turion) HP-Compac NX6125 running SuSE 10.2. My
wife uses it at home and has had no problems. I've got 2 64-bit
Intel quad dual core Xeon systems running RHEL 4 and 2 IA64 systems.=20
--=20
Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
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