Looking for a OS to try out as a secondary

[duragezic]

I tried a search but couldn't come up with much except older topics, so I'm not sure if the issues still persist or not.

I got a new hard drive yesterday and have been considering a new OS to play with but keep XP Pro on for gaming and whatnot.

I seem to remember Linux in general having better 64-bit support than say at the time, XP x64. But at that time, as I understood, there was issues such as no 64-bit version of flash and some codecs not working. I've been curious about 64bit versions of OSes but have not tried one yet.

I'm not sure how I'll partition yet, but I will have spare 27.3gb, 60gb, and 80gb (all 7200rpm) hard drives once I move some stuff around. I prefer to dual boot with the second OS on a second hard drive. Again, I'll be running XP Pro SP2 as my main OS. My choices for a second OS that I have or can get:

XP Pro x64
Vista Business
Vista Business x64
Ubuntu
Ubuntu x64
insert any other linux distro


The only ones I don't already have physically are Vista Business x64 and any linux distro, both of which I can download for free. And all copies are legit, so I'm not out to pirate stuff.

I mention Ubuntu specifically as I find it the most easy to use out of the distros I've tried. I used Ubuntu 6.06 32-bit briefly, but it was annoying to have to manually switch to VESA due to some Nvidia driver issue. I hope that is fixed in the new 7 series version.

I can probably just count XP Pro x64 out right away right? Probably is pretty worthless from what I understand.... I got a legit copy but never used it so it was just a waste of a download, my time, and my lightscribe CD.

I was going to just install Vista Business 32-bit, but I am curious about 64-bit. I'm not sure if that presents more compatibility issues than what Vista 32-bit allegedly has already. And from what I've read in articles, the Aero interface isn't actually as useful as it could be (like Expose for OS X, for example).

So I've seen some XGL+compiz videos, and that looks cooler and more useful than stuff like Flip3d. So I'm leaning towards Ubuntu. But..

1) Ubuntu 6.06 or the new 7.04? If Ubuntu, do I go 64-bit? I want to make sure that Flash works correctly and that I can watch xvid, x264, etc movies in Ubuntu 64, so if 64-bit still has those problems I read about a while ago, I wouldn't be able to do those things.

2) If I go with Ubuntu, is it easy to install the flashy eye candy things like Beryl or XGL? Which is better? Does Synaptic provide packages for these as well as a working Nvidia driver for the OpenGL acceleration?


Or do I say screw Ubuntu, and use Vista, given I have it available? And again the 32-bit vs. 64-bit issue! I'm inclined to wait until say SP1 as far as Vista goes.

Also, would using VMware be too slow to at least try out Beryl on Ubuntu, or unable to at all? Or since this is just for experimenting initially, would using VMware for one of these OSes be the best choice?

 

[drag]

most of the codec problems have been solved. Not perfect, but most people aren't going to miss anything that isn't DRM'd.

Flash is still a issue. There are ways to work around it.


Honestly, unless you have over 4 gigs of RAM stick with the 32bit version of Ubuntu. 64bit is not going to be any faster, at least not in anyway that matters right now, and 64bit version will actually use more memory then the 32bit version.

If you realy want 64bit then it's not to difficult, there just is a couple extra steps you have to do.

 

[Praetor]

Flash works most of the time on my 64-bit install. I used this guide to help. For Ubuntu, there are some automated guides 1 2 that will walk you through the process. I say it works most of the time because I've occasionally ran into the old out-of-sync issue.

As far as codecs, the only issue I can honestly say I've run into lately is playing back MS' WVC1 codec for a high def movie with a 64-bit mplayer. I have little doubt that installing the 32-bit binary with win32codecs will solve that issue, but I have no interest in doing that. Otherwise, everything else I've thrown at mplayer has played. xvid, x264, mov, real, flv, (most) wmv.

I don't have any opinions on the eye candy front, I prefer to use *box and a bunch of terminals.

Good luck and enjoy it.

 

[Looney]

Beryl is absolutely awesome. I love it. Being able to flip desktops on the cube is fantastic (you actually have 4 desktop, each one with it's own cube... so really, there's 16 desktops you can have).

 

[duragezic]

Thanks all. I had read some of what you guys said on other forums, but some of the posts on those forums were so laughable, I wanted a confirmation from someone on here before I dove into it.

As said, unless one has > 4GB of RAM, there is not much reason to use 64-bit of anything. I like to be on the more cutting edge of things, but given the headaches I've had lately due to other computer crap and limited time and knowledge, I think I'll save myself any additional headaches, and just try Vista and Ubuntu 7, both 32-bit.

I burned Ubuntu 7.04 32-bit last night and intended to install it it last night, but it go so late and I was dead tired. It is kind of a joke with myself and a few friends about installing linux on a Friday night. I swear over the past couple of years, myself and a couple of friends somehow end up ALWAYS installing linux on a Friday night. We're not that nerdy, it's just kind of funny to spend your Friday night doing that. Partying and/or going to the bar got old for me after not long anyway, so I don't really care these days.

 

[doog519]

I know you are asking about Ubuntu 64 bit. And I hope this doesn't confuse you.
But I have been running Suse 10.2 64 bit since it come out. "last fall"
I had no problems installing it. Except I used Firefox 32 bit Browser and flash.
Due to some of the problems Drag mentioned.
And that system has been solid.

I also had twin hard drives and installed Suse 32 bit on one drive and 64 bit on the other drive.
I feel that the Suse the 64 bit is slightly faster.

I also have had Suse and Ubuntu 32 bit installed on one of my laptops. And I thought Ubuntu was a little faster than Suse.

But I have no experience with Ubuntu 64 bit.

I don't know if the slightly extra speed would be worth it.
But if it would be me and you like cutting edge I would go with the 64 bit.