On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 11:48:47 -0800 (PST), Jason Hiller
<jasonchiller@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I want to get some opinions on whether Fedora Core-64
is a good choice for a Linux newby. I have some
experience w/ Linux but not a great deal. I am going
to buy a new computer and was considering getting a
AMD-64 chip. I am going to run Fedora Core
exclusively on the new machine. Is installing and
running FC-64 within the grasp of a Linux beginner or
should I stick with i386? Are there any other
drawbacks to going with FC-64 vs. FC-i386? Any
opinions are appreciated. Also, if this is the wrong
place to ask this type of question please redirect me.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Jason,
I'd say definitely go with an AMD64 chip and definitely go with the
64-bit version. You should not really have any trouble with it more
than you would with the 32-bit version. I'd say if you can do the
i386 version, you can do x86_64. The only thing I have not been able
to do with FC x86_64 is use my (Broadcom) wireless with ndiswrapper
(it's a laptop), though this may be working in the near future. For
anything that does not yet work with 64-bit, you can install the
32-bit and run it. For instance, you can install 32-bit Firefox to
get flash and java plugins to work. Most things work with 64-bit
though, and those that don't will in time. If you have the disk
space, you can even dual boot the x86_64 and i386 versions.
Jonathan
All-in-all I've got no stability issues with my x86_64 system, however
there are some things to consider if you're planning to get a Nvidia
video card. The 64-bit drivers have a bug with the mouse pointer on
PCIe systems, SLI in particular. They (Nvidia) know about it and it
should be fixed in the next driver release.