Recommendations for 64bit Linux System

[pmartin]

Hello everyone!
I've been using Debian/GNU linux for the past year at work, and some at home. I'm thinking of jumping to a 64 bit system (perhaps those nice AMD Opterons) but I'm not sure which distro to try with it. Anyone have any successful recommendations? My initial thought is to get a Tyan single proc MB with an Opteron in it and try the Debian amd64 kernel image once Sarge comes out.
Any thoughts!? My ears are open!

Cheers!

[techieMoe]

I recommend the AMD64, mostly because I have one and I love it. It runs 32-bit and 64-bit software and operating systems just as well if not better than its 32-bit counterparts, and it doesn't require registered RAM (Xeon, Opteron). It also supports the standard x86 architecture so no special distros of Linux are required (G5). For a desktop user, I say AMD64.

[pmartin]

I assume you like SuSe with the AMD 64; how did it handle the install of your SATA drive? I have 9.2, and I tried to install it a few months ago and it choked on my motherboard's SATA controller (this is my current single P4 system). Did your motherboard happen to have stable dirvers for SuSe 9.3 at install?

[techieMoe]

I assume you like SuSe with the AMD 64; how did it handle the install of your SATA drive? I have 9.2, and I tried to install it a few months ago and it choked on my motherboard's SATA controller (this is my current single P4 system). Did your motherboard happen to have stable dirvers for SuSe 9.3 at install?

Yes, I'm quite happy with 64-bit SuSE, although honestly I haven't noticed any significant performance enhancements running 32-bit vs 64-bit SuSE on my AMD64. I have a VIA 8237 SATA controller and SuSE installed just fine with no special driver disks or any such nonsense. NOTE that I do not have my SATA drives hooked up in a RAID array. Many people on the forums have had issues with RAID in Linux.

[Chromatic Distortion]

Say, anyone checked out the SPARC64 architecture? I'm thinking of getting a Sun UltraSparc workstation, but I'm not sure whether to or not because everything runs on x86 these days.

[eatinglemur]

Is Xeon 64 bit? I wasn't aware of that.

I'm thinking of getting a Sun UltraSparc workstation

Go for it. I've always wanted one! I'm interested in any technology backed by Fujitsu, and Sun ain't half bad either.

I cast my vote for PPC. I'm kind of tired of the x86 scene, and the amd64 stuff, while interesting, doesn't excite me as much.

When running 64 bit, does it really matter what distro you use as long as it's for that arch? I can't imagine what needs to be done beyond recompiling everything. I knew a guy who ran SuSE on his amd64 laptop...said it was very fast.

[Chromatic Distortion]

And Sparc came out with 64-bit chips WAY before the 64-bit x86 were born. Why weren't they used? Just goes to show you how one world depends on one particular OS to run everything.

[eatinglemur]

And Sparc came out with 64-bit chips WAY before the 64-bit x86 were born. Why weren't they used? Just goes to show you how one world depends on one particular OS to run everything.

Not just that, but we could also consider other facters that may have had an impact, such as pricing and licensing. I only really see Sun using SPARC, but I know they are not the only one.

[techieMoe]

And Sparc came out with 64-bit chips WAY before the 64-bit x86 were born. Why weren't they used? Just goes to show you how one world depends on one particular OS to run everything.

Intel also released their Itanium before the AMD64s came out, and they didn't sell either. There are a number of factors that worked into both of these chips not taking off, one of which is the ability of the x86_64 to run 32-bit code unmodified.

[jamey112]

intel xeon. never had an amd, so i cant recommend it. i would like to get one though.