kde or lxde... 64 or 32

[sqlpython]

and I am not trying to be argumentative however just to clarify ( I do prefer 64bit)
This much more then Flash......
If you are going to install 64bit anything you must realize that with the Chip advances it is still a 32bit world..too many apps deep.
More examples come to mind like the Cisco VPN that I installed only to find..
On 64bit systems you might experience the following error message when trying to start the VPN client:
/usr/local/bin/vpnclient: No such file or directory

..Also installing some Printer Firmware set up for 32 bit looking for a 64bit dir whereas I created the directory to allow the install to proceed..

.. IDEs that gave me grief until I modifed..
..64bit is worth it but I have been installing on 64bit machines for 8+ years I can give you a laundry list of distractions..
Usually solvable with research and modification.
However, before you blame a particular Distro you must be prepared for these inconveniences and not expect Everything to Always work with the same frequency of the 32bit Linux.. right out of the Box..
If you are aware and do your due diligence you will be pleased with 64bit..

[kinslayer]

There is an unofficial SalixOS package for 64-bit Flash. See: http://www.salixos.org/forum/viewtopic. ... 1&start=80 It works very well indeed.

My guess is, since it is his wife's laptop, 32 bit should do just fine.

Why would the fact that it belongs to somoene's wife make the slightest bit of difference? Sexist crap! You don't know her usage patterns anymore than you know mine. Gender does NOT enter into this.

Will also see better performance out of things like Flash (I could be wrong, but I have not read or heard anything saying 64bit flash doesn't suck anymore)

You're wrong. I'll also be the first to tell you that 64-bit Flash doesn't suck anymore... or at least not anymore than 32-bit Flash.

Was not about gender other than listing the owner of the laptop. Since it was clear to me that this is a new user to Salix, I was implying that 32 might be a better option, perhaps was not abundantly clear on that, so my apologies...did not mean to offend by sounding like a sexist pig or anything. As was stated, the 32 bit apps do go deep and there is more support without having to use workarounds, it might be a smarter decision to get your feet wet with Salix using 32bit not having to worry about workarounds..I believe the nspluginwrapper was mentioned as one...I can think of a few others but the point of the matter is that 32bit still works out of the box at a higher percentage rate than 64bit at this time....that will change I am sure of it, but that is the case right now. Yes, most of the hurdles can be overcome rather easily, but I always find it easier to learn the ropes when not pulling my hair out looking for workarounds. Then again, the OP did not state his experience with Linux so I have took a stab in the dark and figured more of a new user rather than a 10 year vet who is just trying out Salix for the first time. I could be wrong on that assumption, but I have not been proven wrong on it yet so I wrote to that fact.

As a long time Debian user, I am not 100% yet on all of the major and minor differences between the distro's but I know in Debian, the performance between 64bit and 32bit on a machine with only 2 gigs of RAM was very noticeable. I could be very wrong and Salix doesn't have that shortcoming but I know it was there in Debian, and for all intensive purposes, all of the Debian based derivatives to the better extent of my knowledge on them.

I'm glad I am wrong on 64bit flash....it sucked bad for a long time when the 32bit version only sucked slightly....I'm glad things are catching up, but I still recommend 32bit to people for the time being if their machine has under 4 gigs of ram. That is just me....it isn't you..that is fine. No need to get all upset over it.

[davidwillis]

Thanks for all the comments. I guess I could have been more clear. I have used linux for some time, and could probably figure out the 64 bit stuff, but I don't have much time, and don't want to have to figure it out. So I think the 32 bit will be a better choice for me. Besides, my wife does not do any cpu intensive stuff, just web browsing, word processing, e-mailing, etc. Mainly I just want this computer to be easy to setup, and be very quick (responsive).

I just did an install of the kde 13.37, and it seems to be fast enough (although I haven't really done much with it). The only problem I see right away is that the wireless is not working.

[davidwillis]

I am also thinking about trying Salix on my desktop. I currently am running pclinuxos with the pae kernel to give me access to my 4gb of ram. Is there a 32 bit kernel in salix that will still let me use all my ram? With the regular kernel I only had access to about 3.2 gb of ram. If there is not, I may install the 64 bit on this machine.

[davidwillis]

Sorry, one other question. How hard is it to upgrade when the next salix release comes out?

[Shador]

Sorry, one other question. How hard is it to upgrade when the next salix release comes out?

Usually after a while instructions pop up in the wiki. Instructions for upgrading to current (development version) usually appear earlier, but they can still slightly change until the final release.

[thenktor]

I am also thinking about trying Salix on my desktop. I currently am running pclinuxos with the pae kernel to give me access to my 4gb of ram. Is there a 32 bit kernel in salix that will still let me use all my ram? With the regular kernel I only had access to about 3.2 gb of ram. If there is not, I may install the 64 bit on this machine.

Are you using some precompiled apps? If not, just use the x86_64 version. Flash or multimedia is no problem.

[davidwillis]

I am not sure... I know I will need virtualbox.

[davidwillis]

I have most things setup now on the laptop. I have virtualbox working, the wireless card working, and kde working. But I can't get lxde to work. I installed lxde, but it did not show up in the kdm menu. So I copied /usr/share/xsessions/LXDE.desktop to /usr/share/apps/kdm/sessions/. that added LXDE to the menu, but when I choose it, it just comes right back to the kdm login.

[davidwillis]

Also, I can't find preload in gslapt.