This review describes the installation and basic configuration of the latest Kubuntu 6.06 on an AMD64-powered machine. It covers some often problematic features like getting the non-free and binary apps to work in the 64-bit environment. Another article explains how to install the latest Xubuntu on a Gateway laptop.
http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=662&slide=4…
One thing I found misleading: it’s not that Kubuntu makes hard to use Flash or whatever in a 64bit environment, it’s that closed source software often does not come in this flavour!
I agree with the author that while on x86 any desktop-oriented linux distro is pretty easy to setup, on other architectures it can be tricky sometimes. But again, it’s not (usually) the distribution’s fault, but it’s the lack of architecture specific software!
Of course, many hardware manufacturers are either 1) unwilling to release GPL software for their hardware or 2) don’t because of the relatively small market for GPL drivers.
You seem to blame them while not taking into consideration their business concerns with the GPL license. They’ve made a choice and it wasn’t the one that favored GPL. This happens a lot. Its a chronic issue with all linux distributions. There is no end in sight either.
edit: that said, i use kubuntu and I like it.
It works with my computer for the most part. I just install the latest nVidia drivers after I load the system which is what I do with WinXP too.
Edited 2006-07-12 20:10
Of course, many hardware manufacturers are either 1) unwilling to release GPL software for their hardware or 2) don’t because of the relatively small market for GPL drivers.
You seem to blame them while not taking into consideration their business concerns with the GPL license. They’ve made a choice and it wasn’t the one that favored GPL.
I’m sorry, but this isn’t about hardware manufacturers not wanting to release GPLed drivers at all…I’m curious as to how you came to this conclusion.
Rather, this is about Macromedia not producing a 64-bit version of their Flash player, and since it’s proprietary, you must go through some hoops to have it work on a 64-bit OS. By the way, the same issues exist on the 64-bit version of Windows as well, IIRC…
Xubuntu has made it possible for me to get some extra use out of an old Winbook that otherwise would stay in a box collecting dust. It has a AMD K6-2 processor with 128MB of memory. It was originally designed for Win98, and will not run 2000 or XP because the hardware is too proprietary and there are no drivers for the video, etc., and the memory is maxxed out at 128MB.
With Xubuntu, the only thing that won’t work is the proprietary sound card (some old Yamaha chip), but I can live with that. I have other machines for the fancy stuff.
The screen is clear and bright, the integrated trackpad works fine, and I am using an Orinoco Gold PCMCIA wireless card for connectivity.
This is a good little extra laptop I can use when I only need to do light duty tasks or take travelling. Gnome or KDE would simply bog this machine down to the point of uselessness. Xfce seem to work fine.
the article about xubuntu sounds very much like there aren’t very many apps for the distro but the truth is that this is nothing other than ubuntu without gnome installed ( although you can install it if you need it ). I found every appliation that I use in xubuntu and it runs great inside vmware. Also xfce4 has greatly improved over the last year or so and it’s starting to look like a better gnome. It still has some problems and corners to smooth out but the direction that it’s going in is great. One thing that really bugs me about both ubuntu and xubunty is that best does not come with beagle. Oh well can’t have everything I guess. Also configuring xgl on xubuntu is somewhat of a pain.
I’ve installed Ubuntu 6.06 on a friend’s Athlon recently and due to finding multiple posts and articles like these, I chose the x86 version without qualms.
So far I haven’t seen any benchmarks indicating a specific reason a native AMD64 version would serve you better for a desktop Linux. Read the last part of that sentence again. For a desktop Linux, where multimedia codecs and plugins are part of selling Linux as a viable desktop OS, having to manually install 32-bit apps is irritating. Nor is it unique as an earlier poster points out with Win64: Rosetta on OS X makes it clear that emulation requires plugins to match the application’s architecture.
As 64-bit architecture becomes more and more common, vendors will port their plugins. Until then this is a parlor trick — unless someone creates a self-managed environment for this type of situation.
I am running the amd64 architecture (linux) and everything works fine apart from flash. Adobe/Macromedia are an absolute failure, after 3 years they still don’t have a 64bit version of flash.
I am running the amd64 architecture (linux) and everything works fine apart from flash. Adobe/Macromedia are an absolute failure, after 3 years they still don’t have a 64bit version of flash.
That´s where the Gnash project comes in. Seems like they have made great progress in the last months.
The browser plugin and the GTK standalone player are already in a state where they can play some simple stuff. Nothing to write home about yet, but at least it is something that can play things newer than Flash 4 which seems to be the extent of the compatibility of some non-Macromedia existing implementations.
If they manage to create an OSS plugin compatible feature-wise with at least Flash Player 7, we would have a winner. This way, people on 64 bit and other architectures wouldn´t have to beg Adobe to port its plugin. Not to mention that other smaller OSes that have even fewer chances of getting it than Linux (like Zeta, Syllable, SkyOS, etc.) would benefit greatly of an OSS player that can be ported easily.