Re: newby trying to go debian
Użytkownik Rodrigo Alexandre <rodrigo@depoisdasdez.com.br> napisał:
>hi all, i would like to go linux, have heard that debian is a good
>compilation, and want to give it a try. my system is a amd athlon 64
>3500 currently running windows and with an empty partition for linux.
>i have a few questions one might be able to help.
>
>1. this 64bit thing, does it mean i cant run 32bit apps?
As amd64 (and compatible) processors can execute 32bit code natively
(as you already know), the 64bit OS's can do it also.
But in case of Debian this is a bit complicated - it desn't have all the 32bit stuff (needed to run 32bit binaries) installed by default. There are some
packages that provide 32bit libraries, and other things, needed to run
32bit applications (called ia32libs), but unfortunately for some programs
it is not enough (don't know why).
A solution is to install so called chroot environment (you can find much
information on this in Debian's online documentation).
It allows you to run every 32bit application on your 64bit Debian.
But there aren't many apps left that haven't been yet ported to 64bits
(there has been said a lot about it on this list so you can check the
mailing-list's archive). Some of the apps are (those which I remember of):
-official java plugin for firefox (although there is a 64bit java runtime
environment - the lack of the plugin is caused by the lack of official 64bit
firefox, of course there is an unofficial 64bit firefox available)
-official flash plugin (the unofficial ones are not compatible with the newest
flash versions)
-Adobe's acrobat reader (there are many PDF reading programs for linux
you can use instead)
-official OpenOffice (there are unofficial 64bit builds for Debian available,
so it is not a problem)
-there are no 64bit windows media audio/video codecs so one can only
play wma/wmv under 32bit OS/chroot
There are more, but I think these are the most important.
>2. is there a specific distribution better than debian for those
>interested in image processing (raster and vector) and video
>authoring?
I've heared of some distro that is optimised for video processing but I don't
remember the name. But as every GNU/Linux distro is still the same OS,
you can do the same things (run the same software) on each of them.
(you should be aware that not every linux distribution comes with all
standard GNU utils by default - AFAIK for example Mandriva (at least one
of it's versions) doesn't install "binutils" package by default and I've heared
about some problems people have with running some programs on such
distros.
>3. can i install it in a way that windows may boot as well? this has
>something to do with a swap partition as well as the linux one, isn't
>it?
When you install linux there is also installed so-called boot-loader -
a program that boots the system and it can handle many systems
(it lets you choose which OS you want to boot).
As for partitions - you need at least one for linux and one for swap (though
the swap partition is not required it is recommended to have one).
The installation program will let you set up the partitions and will format
them in apropirate way.
>4. noticed that there are two main compilations for 64bits, one only
>is official though. which one should i go for?
>
There is an stable version (the unofficial one) and there are testing and
unstable versions (the official ones).
The testing (Etch) is quite stable though so it is safe to use it.
The unofficial stable AMD64 port of Debian is quite old so if you want
new versions of kernel and other software you should choose the testing
version
>i have already googled these questions and found a couple of facs
>dealing with them, but because of my newby condition, it all looked
>vague and complex for me. it would be great if someone could spot me
>clear resources on these issues. many thanks in advance!
>
>rodrigo
>
Tomek
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