[ILUG] Suggestions for best 64 bit Linux distro?

[Nils Olofsson]

On Wed, 2005-06-22 at 18:34 +0000, Paul Biggar wrote:
> On 6/22/05, Braun Brelin <bbrelin at openapp.biz> wrote:
> > Anyone have a good suggestion for a 64 bit Linux distro?
> > I'm looking for a distro that has good support for multimedia apps...
> 
> The thread seems to have wandered off topic, so I'll just answer the
> question with my short story of the search for the same.
> 
> Starting with the rule 'not fedora', and 'not anything else rpm
> related', there was the choice between debian and gentoo (I didn't
> notice there was an ubuntu x86_64). I wasn't considering BSDs either.
> 
> Debian x86_64 wasn't an official release, so I didn't think I could
> expect the full support that I thought I'd get with gentoo, and which
> I'm happy to say, I have gotten with gentoo. Some high points and
> low-points:
> 
> High:
> - Very good documentation. Really really good.
> - Most of portage (that I've used) has been available for ~amd64,
> though a lot of it is masked (ie testing).
> - They treat amd64 as a first class architecture, unlike debian.

Wow, some good point, its amazing.

> Low points:
> - Some codecs don't work in 64 bit.
> - Portage is source based, as I'm sure you're aware. So you don't get
> to use a package when you need it. You have to wait 3 hours.
> - Not everything works. You'll occasionally (ie more than you'd like
> to) update or install a new package only for ebuild to fail. I've
> never seen this happen in debian (i386)

What! I've been using Gentoo for the last 4 plus year and the only time
it fucked up was when my HD fail,I've never had an ebuild failer,bar
running out of space for compiling OpenOffice (what can i say) :)

> - The initial install is not simple, and it is long (though it is well
> documented).

It's to weed out the idiots :) (Darwin Awards comes to mind)

> - Use flags suck ass. They're inconsistant across ebuilds; flags that
> you think would be supported by some packages aren't; and there aren't
> any decent tools to play with them (ufed? kill me)

Different packages use different USE flags. you can't expect apache to
compile with gnome dependency, can you ?

> You can get around some of these problems by running a debian chroot.
> But that's twice the install, and you need to use debootstrap, which
> is also not trivial.

What ?

> Is there a speed difference? Maybe, but I don't notice it. Anyhow, you
> spend so long installing packages in the background that your system
> will probably run slower, on average.

All my updates compile in the background, most 99% are emerged within a
few hours.

> All in all, when debian etch comes out, and has full amd64 support, I
> will probably switch.
Good, hope it works out.

> Hope this helps,
> Paul
> 
> 
> -- 
> Paul Biggar
> paul.biggar at gmail.com