Which 64 bit distro should Pat install on his new system?

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:08 pm

yeti wrote:
Patrick wrote:I would be curious to see if it only takes 16 hours instead of 48. That would be quite an improvement!
i'd go for it!

it would be a decent burn-in cycle for the new kit

Actually it wouldn't, because sometimes the time it takes to install the app, once built, will drop the CPU load to normal levels.

If you wanna a good and reliable burn-in test, Prime95 is the bomb, it puts a full load on the CPU, my rule of thumb is that if it will run for 48 hours under full load, the system works fine.

Some people say just 24 hours is fine, but I'm paranoid about reliability so I always go over the top, and for my next PC/workstation it's gonna do a whole week of full load, lots of memory tests with memtest86+ etc.
I'm paranoid yes, but I really really like the feeling of sitting down and using a machine that I know is very well built and just rock solid.
I hope Xen matures quickly, because I'd really like to use it to run a crapload of GNU/Linux distributions, for example, I could set up Fedora, and then connect a cheap, very low power PC and run a remote X-display over gigabit ethernet and run synergy or something.
There's so many cool things you can do with free software.

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:08 am

You need to install gentoo on there, then come back and tell me how it goes. I'd like to have someone be a guinea pig on this before I try it out myself.

I really wish I knew which distro worked better, because that knowledge would mean that I myself had an AMD64 system.

Anyhow, the gentoo wiki had some info:
AMD64 Gentoo Wiki

Looks like there are a few issues, but once again, gentoo's documentation is a great thing to have when you're trying out something new.

TankCatNinjaFish · Post by **TankCatNinjaFish** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 4:40 am

i said gentoo, but FreeBSD is awesome on amd64. I also hear decent things about Fedora's 64 bit version.

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 1:29 am

Gentoo has the lead right now Pat, you might have to give it another shot. I would do it atleast to see how long it takes to compile KDE on that AMD mobo.

CptnObvious999 · Post by **CptnObvious999** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 2:01 am

Wally Balljacker wrote:Gentoo has the lead right now Pat, you might have to give it another shot. I would do it atleast to see how long it takes to compile KDE on that AMD mobo.

If you decide to give Gentoo a go and you don't want to go through the normal Gentoo install, try RR64 or VidaLinux. I have had pretty good experiences with both of those.

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:45 am

Wally Balljacker wrote:Gentoo has the lead right now Pat, you might have to give it another shot. I would do it atleast to see how long it takes to compile KDE on that AMD mobo.

I typically have a knee jerk reaction with this sort of thing. If it falls into the category of bleeding edge, I immediatly think of gentoo.

This may change one day, but right now I'd hate to find that I'm never getting my hands dirty. It was fun to make the switch to udev, and to be forced to learn how to write a few rules to get something to work the way you want, and then discover that you can do a little something extra that you wouldn't have known about had everything just worked straight away.

But yeah, if I were going AMD64, I'd use gentoo at the moment, they usually get to these things first, and also get out some documentation to help you get through the inevitable quirks you'll find. At the very least, you'd have bragging rights on compiling KDE...

Gomer_X · Post by **Gomer_X** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:03 am

Since Fedora is not on the list, I voted for Vista.

Fedora's 64 bit support has been pretty good for a while. You may have to get over the fact that yum will cost you 2 minutes a week of your time, unless you're willing to turn on automtic updates.