The switch to x64

[danvds3]

Well after not seeing much difference in i386-i686 and amd64, I've switched back to 32-bit due to the lack of amd64 builds in certain applications.

As for recompiling:

-Yes, in a sense, you CAN recompile/force-architecture a 32-bit package
-BUT, specifically 64-bit builds that give the best performance are coded differently in specific areas. They also use different libs compared to 32-bit linux.

Another recent switch that DID stay with me is openSUSE. It is a very impressive operating system, but that wasn't the switch, I'm always switching distros, so that doesn't count. No, the real switch is KDE. Might I add that I thought KDE looked too kid-like and plasti'k' (oh yeah and the amoroK, Konsole, Kthis Konqueror kind of annoyed me), but to be truthful, KDE is very good indeed. I underestimated it. One thing that either KDE or openSUSE (can't decipher yet) is much slower in terms of processing speeds and graphical terms to that of Gnome or maybe its the distro. (Ubuntu x32 is my best distro tested out of Mandriva, Ubuntu x64, openSUSE and Fedora Core 7).

What is your favorite distro?

I plan on testing:
MEPIS
Kubuntu
Gentoo
Knoppix

[devils casper]

What is your favorite distro?

I plan on testing:
MEPIS
Kubuntu
Gentoo
Knoppix

check this Poll.

[mahlerfan]

As for recompiling:

-Yes, in a sense, you CAN recompile/force-architecture a 32-bit package
-BUT, specifically 64-bit builds that give the best performance are coded differently in specific areas. They also use different libs compared to 32-bit linux.

Thanks for the clarification.

One thing that either KDE or openSUSE (can't decipher yet) is much slower in terms of processing speeds and graphical terms to that of Gnome or maybe its the distro. (Ubuntu x32 is my best distro tested out of Mandriva, Ubuntu x64, openSUSE and Fedora Core 7).

I think that you're right both ways. OpenSuse is slower than some of the other distros (though they have big plans to change that), but also the full kde is perhaps the slowest, biggest de. But it can also be as lightweight and as fast as xfce. If you want an example of kde lite, try Vector Linux. You can also do it on Gentoo by installing kde-core.

What is your favorite distro?

I plan on testing:
MEPIS
Kubuntu
Gentoo
Knoppix

Mepis is great, love it, it's solid, my only complaint is that it's based on Dapper Drake which I found to be buggy. Kubuntu castrates kde, which some people like, others don't, you'll have to decide for yourself.

Despite all the flack that Gentoo has received recently, when I tried it again a few months ago I found it to be very stable, fast and robust. The installer is still sucko, so the bear of manual installation is still the way to go. At least once you've installed and configured it, maintaining it is easy thanks to portage.

I didn't realize that Knoppix was still around, if you like it also try Sabayon.

As for favorite there are several that I like about equally and I'm currently using Slackware, which is one of them.