AMD64 linux

[Scott_Arm]

Well, I'm looking to get back into Linux, and I'd like to try a good AMD64 variant. I'm a big fan of the Debian apt-get utility, so a Debian distro would be preferable. Do any other distros have an apt-get type utility yet?

I just got an Nvidia card, so I can finally get back into Linux again, and really use it for everything (minus gaming, which is becoming a smaller priority for me, daily).

Does SUSE still get updated, or has Novell crushed that?

Edit: I forgot to mention, I'd like something that's easy to install. I really don't want to spend an hour installing stuff, or picking every single package.

Edit again: I also won't a 64bit distro that will allow me to use 32 bit apps, if they haven't been converted over to 64bit. I tried Ubuntu a while back, but, from what I was told, Ubuntu can only run apps that have been ported to 64bit. That could be wrong - I'm not sure.

 

[Spaceman-Spiff]

Maybe this can help you choose: http://www.anandtech.com/linux/showdoc.aspx?i=2114

 

[wireframe]

Give Fedora Core 3 a try. By default it comes with YUM installed and as the preferred method of updating, but APT can be added and there are reposotories for that as well. Fedora Core is Redhat and therefore prefers Gnome. The Bluecurve theme means that Gnome and KDE look very similar. Nvidia drivers are working fine for me and everything is top notch. It's an added bonus that you can download Core 3 for both CD and DVD. With DVD the install is very smooth as you don't have to attend to swap between the usual 3 CDs and the Anaconda installer is easy to use (same as Redhat).

There are some quirks, mainly for the fact that Fedora Core is and aims to be a cutting edge distribution. Sometimes you will need to carefully read the installation instructions or, in my case for Core 3, I had to use a floppy image to update parted to get the installation working correctly with my HDD setup. Furtheremore, the add/remove programs utility (just like in Windows "add/remove system components" but broader) has traditionally had some problems. However, all this is solved by YUM, which solves RPM dependencies for you and downloads all the necessary packages to get going (also a great update tool).

The main quirk and complaitn about Fedora is the lack of multimedia software. Redhat takes the issue of intellectual property very seriously and therefore do not include MPEG support or support for any technology that may mean a lawsuit. Again, this is easily solved by configuring YUM and installing the missing application (like Mplayer). The most common complaint is the lack of MP3 playback support in the shipped version of Xmms. This can be fixed by installing the Xmms-mp3 package, which is a tiny 100KB add-on.

 

[passerby]

Slightly OT, but I'll prefer a 2.4 kernel, and maybe a 'non-cutting edge' distro myself. I'm waiting on Debian Sarge. On Fedora Core 2 and the 2.6 kernel, I've had to do 3 kernel updates in a month. The last 2 broke a couple of sound drivers(see fedoraforum), and the one before them had the audacity to break gdb.

It'll be a sort of downgrade for me by moving from 2.6 back to 2.4, but stability is now my top preference.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Is there an ETA on Debian Sarge?

 

[passerby]

They say 'beginning of the year', which will probably end up being Feb or March.

EDIT: Oops, there isn't an official AMD64 Debian yet.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Ok, I'm tryin' Fedora Core 3 right now. The one thing that always turns me away from linux is the difficulty of doing simple things. All I want to do is install the Nvidia display drivers, but Fedora automatically boots into xwindows session and that causes the installation to fail. I have no idea about editing run levels in the inittab file to make it work. This is the kind of stuff Linux needs to make easier. I have also installed the Nvidia Nforce drivers, and have edited my modprobe.conf file, but my distro is still using my old forcedeth module and some intel sound module. I tried using modprobe to load the modules, but that didn't seem to do anything.

 

[wireframe]

Ok, I'm tryin' Fedora Core 3 right now. The one thing that always turns me away from linux is the difficulty of doing simple things. All I want to do is install the Nvidia display drivers, but Fedora automatically boots into xwindows session and that causes the installation to fail. I have no idea about editing run levels in the inittab file to make it work. This is the kind of stuff Linux needs to make easier. I have also installed the Nvidia Nforce drivers, and have edited my modprobe.conf file, but my distro is still using my old forcedeth module and some intel sound module. I tried using modprobe to load the modules, but that didn't seem to do anything.

You are probably using the Grub boot menu to boot the sytem. You can highlight the Fedora entry and press 'a'. This will let you append boot parameters for this one boot. By adding a '3' at the end of the boot line you will go to run level 3.

Otherwise, let it boot normally, open a terminal, enter 'su -' and it will ask you for your root password. Then issue 'init 3' to drop to runlevel 3. Install drive package 'sh NVIDIA-blah-blah-blah' (use tab autocomplete of course ). Return to run level 5 by issuing 'init 5'.

You'll want to edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf appropriately. This is well documented in the Nvidia Readme. Be aware that you are probably best off manually editing the xorg.conf for resolution and be sure to enter the proper vertical and horizontal synch values for your monitor.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Ok, I'm tryin' Fedora Core 3 right now. The one thing that always turns me away from linux is the difficulty of doing simple things. All I want to do is install the Nvidia display drivers, but Fedora automatically boots into xwindows session and that causes the installation to fail. I have no idea about editing run levels in the inittab file to make it work. This is the kind of stuff Linux needs to make easier. I have also installed the Nvidia Nforce drivers, and have edited my modprobe.conf file, but my distro is still using my old forcedeth module and some intel sound module. I tried using modprobe to load the modules, but that didn't seem to do anything.

You are probably using the Grub boot menu to boot the sytem. You can highlight the Fedora entry and press 'a'. This will let you append boot parameters for this one boot. By adding a '3' at the end of the boot line you will go to run level 3.

Otherwise, let it boot normally, open a terminal, enter 'su -' and it will ask you for your root password. Then issue 'init 3' to drop to runlevel 3. Install drive package 'sh NVIDIA-blah-blah-blah' (use tab autocomplete of course ). Return to run level 5 by issuing 'init 5'.

You'll want to edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf appropriately. This is well documented in the Nvidia Readme. Be aware that you are probably best off manually editing the xorg.conf for resolution and be sure to enter the proper vertical and horizontal synch values for your monitor.

Awesome. Thanks for the reply. It's funny, because I took a kernel dev. course at school, but there's still so many basic commands in linux that I don't know how to use.

 

[t0y]

In my (limited) experience with linux I realized it's much easier to get into it if you are a complete noob...
Sometimes I get completely frustrated while trying to acomplish something simple and I just basically give up...