kde or lxde... 64 or 32

[davidwillis]

Hi, I am new to Salix, but would like to give it a try. The first computer I would like to try it on is my wife's laptop. It is a core2 duo with 2GB of ram. She has been using an older laptop and always complains that it is slow. I would like to make sure this laptop is not slow, so if kde will make it slow I will use lxde. Also, is 64 bit up to speed with 32 or am I better off just sticking with 32 bit?

Thanks
David

[kinslayer]

Hi, I am new to Salix, but would like to give it a try. The first computer I would like to try it on is my wife's laptop. It is a core2 duo with 2GB of ram. She has been using an older laptop and always complains that it is slow. I would like to make sure this laptop is not slow, so if kde will make it slow I will use lxde. Also, is 64 bit up to speed with 32 or am I better off just sticking with 32 bit?

Thanks
David

Sounds like you should have a good enough machine to run KDE just fine. I've run KDE on a single core 2.8ghz Celeron and didn't notice any performance issues. As for 32v64 bit.....It depends on how you feel. My research has always turned up the answer that if you have under 4 gigs of RAM, run 32 bit....but that is just what I have read....you can make the call on your own....why not try out both 64 and 32 just to see which "feels" faster to you.

Hope you enjoy Salix.

[kinslayer]

Thought I might add.....I always install the package 'preload' For me, I will never run a system without it if I can help it. It makes the machine slower at first but the more you use it, the less it slows things down as it learns what programs you use the most and pre-caches them a bit to help reduce load times. On my machine, LibreOffice takes 3 seconds to open with Preload and about 10-20 without it.

[davidwillis]

Thanks... I think I will stick with the 32 bit for her laptop, I may go 64 on my desktop with 4gb of ram. And thanks for the preload suggestion.

One other question, can I install both kde, and lxde, then choose with one at login , or will having them both installed slow things down? I know I could dual boot both, but that would use up more hard drive space.

[caitlyn]

IMHO you should definitely go 64-bit. It's not just about memory management. Any application that pushed the CPUs hard will benefit. In particular, if you do any 3D rendering in real time the difference in performance going 64-bit is very noticeable. This is why gamers want native 64-bit OS and apps. Whether or not you will notice the difference depends on how you use the system. Everything in the 32-bit repo is also in the 64-bit repo AFAICT so there is no advantage at all to going 32-bit on a 64-bit machine.

[kinslayer]

IMHO you should definitely go 64-bit. It's not just about memory management. Any application that pushed the CPUs hard will benefit. In particular, if you do any 3D rendering in real time the difference in performance going 64-bit is very noticeable. This is why gamers want native 64-bit OS and apps. Whether or not you will notice the difference depends on how you use the system. Everything in the 32-bit repo is also in the 64-bit repo AFAICT so there is no advantage at all to going 32-bit on a 64-bit machine.

You forget to mention though that while yes, 64 bit will benefit if he is pushing the processor hard, the memory usage will also be more than what he would see in 32 bit. My guess is, since it is his wife's laptop, 32 bit should do just fine. 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) and have a lower memory usage overall. In the end, either way, 64 or 32, is fine...just depends on how much you are a resource junkie.

[kinslayer]

Thanks... I think I will stick with the 32 bit for her laptop, I may go 64 on my desktop with 4gb of ram. And thanks for the preload suggestion.

One other question, can I install both kde, and lxde, then choose with one at login , or will having them both installed slow things down? I know I could dual boot both, but that would use up more hard drive space.

I'm pretty new to Salix myself, but you shouldn't have any problem installing both. Won't slow things down unless you have a very small hard drive and using just 1 was pushing the limits of the free space.

After you have 1 or the other installed, just fire up Gslapt and install either kdebase or lxde-common

After that you can pull in additional programs if you like. I would suggest installing KDE first and then pulling in LXDE. KDE has a lot of native apps that are pretty nice and you can miss some of them without a normal install done first.

[thenktor]

KDE will run fine on that notebook. I'm using it on my notebook with some AMD dual core, too. But I've switched to a SSD instead of slow and noisy notebook hard drives
In the x86_64 version you'll get problems with some precompiled binaries, that do not offer a x86_64 version (e.g. skype). Personally I'm always using the 64 bit version on a x86_64 CPU. Just a matter of taste...

[sqlpython]

IMHO you should definitely go 64-bit.

I did always run a 64bit Linux on my 64bit machines.. I am not a gamer but as a developer I saw compile advantages in fully utilizing the 64bit resources.
While I do agree with Caitlyn, that is better on a 64bit machine regarding use of resources there is a Downside..
that is not having access to 64bit apps in all cases and using workarounds such as nspluginwrapper..
I used to spend quite a bit a time getting my 64bit Multimedia side set up with 32bit apps......
...That aside I do agree

An example of 64bit Linux Multimedia shortcoming..from the ADOBE site

Flash Player 10 for 64-bit Linux
We have closed the Flash Player 10 for 64-bit Linux program on Adobe Labs and have made Flash Player “Square” available.

Let me clarify the above by saying that the Linux Flash 64bit is back in Flash 11... but did not exist in 7 nor 8 nor 9 and was pulled in 10..
So, a big inconvenience to those wanting it for ..well for years..

[caitlyn]

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.