"New" PC in the works. 64-bit Linux?

[KJ3N]

I've had 2 of this motherboard (http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Core2Duo/G45/C2SEA.cfm) for some time. One of them is currently serving as the guts of the shack PC. The other one is going to come "online" in the next day or 2.

The basic configuration will be 8GB (the max it will hold) with W7, OS/2 (eComStation) (http://ecomstation.com/) and Mandriva Free (http://www2.mandriva.com/downloads/free/).

The primary HD will be a 230GB SATA, plus a couple of drives migrated from the machine I am currently using. The OSes will be installed on the primary drive, with the migrated drives containing my present data slaved.

I know I'll be installing W7 64-bit, but I'm not sure if I want to install 64-bit or 32-bit Mandriva Free. I recall there being several issues with the lack of 64-bit plug-ins for Firefox, among other issues. Have those problems been resolved?

[W4GPL]

Not entirely resolved, no.. The 64-bit Flash is still in beta, but I use it with moderately good results. If you go with 64-bit Linux, you'll likely still have quite a few 32-bit libraries and apps still installed. Things like Google Earth still don't run in 64-bit Linux (or didn't as of a couple of months ago), but it's fine as long as you have the supplemental libs installed. FWIW, I run 64-bit Fedora and it's fine..

[ad4mg]

Not entirely resolved, no.. The 64-bit Flash is still in beta, but I use it with moderately good results. If you go with 64-bit Linux, you'll likely still have quite a few 32-bit libraries and apps still installed. Things like Google Earth still don't run in 64-bit Linux (or didn't as of a couple of months ago), but it's fine as long as you have the supplemental libs installed. FWIW, I run 64-bit Fedora and it's fine..
My experiences are much the same. I'm running 64 bit Ubuntu on my AMD powered laptop. The 64 bit Flash doesn't seem any worse than the 32 bit version is. It's the lazy way out, but I've installed the Flash-Aid add-on for Firefox on several of my machines. Seems to keep most of the bugs at bay ...

[W4GPL]

Woo.. just checked and Google Earth is now available in 64 bit. :hyper:

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

Same here, more and more 64 bit apps coming out but still a lot of 32 going on my box.
I remember when the Original IBM PC came out, a 8/16 bit affair with the 8088 CPU.
Now both AMD and Intel have prototype 128 bit chips and are waiting on what Microsoft wants to do.
I see a quad core mobile CPU in 64/128 by 2012 with speed leveling out around 4 GHz.

[n6hcm]

I know I'll be installing W7 64-bit, but I'm not sure if I want to install 64-bit or 32-bit Mandriva Free. I recall there being several issues with the lack of 64-bit plug-ins for Firefox, among other issues. Have those problems been resolved?

not really, but you don't have to run 64-bit firefox/thunderbird on a 64-bit os. you can use the 32-bit firefox and get all the plug-ins you want. easy peasy.