Well, I want to use a 64-bit OS with it, right? That's what it's for. I'm still not quite ready to go to Windows64, as it's not quite ready IMO. Well, turns out neither are the varieties of Linux that I've tried, at least so far, and for what I want. Some of them are pretty close, but now I've discovered a new problem.
The system hangs at random points when running Gnome or KDE. Haven't tried other window managers yet. Evidence across the net seems to point at X-windows, both XFree86 and the new X.org fork, but it's very difficult to nail down evidence because of the variety of hardware and software configurations. It's difficult to repeat the problem the same way on what should be an identical system, too. To add to that, it may be that more than one bug is being chased here.
So, I have decided to finally try Gentoo Linux. If you don't know Gentoo, it's main feature is twofold. One is a cool BSD ports-like repository system. The other is that you compile darn near everything yourself, on your own system, with your own optimizations and so on that you set. And you can recompile the whole shebang pretty easily at any time. (It just may not be speedy...) It does lead to excellent performance, usually, since everything is tuned just right.
So, I have installed Gentoo. That is, I have a system that will boot off the hard drive, connect to the internet, and give me a nice command line to play with. Next step is a GUI.
For a while I couldn't boot and thought I might have blown up my MBR and needed to get out the Windows disk so I could boot back into the MS world. But, fortunately, I was able to determine the real problem - an extra word in my grub menu.lst file - that was affecting all my OSes. Some config change in the Gentoo install broke the Ubuntu-installed grub I'd been using.
I have encountered some odd issues, but the Gentoo project is one of the best-documented I've ever seen. There's a quick-install guide, but the real installation manual is a 100-page detailed guide for every step of the way. Tells you what to type and why, as well as a few alternatives, so it's pretty nice. My goal here was not to just install another Linux distro but to gain a better understanding of the process.
Got it!
If I was going to delve any deeper, there's only two more steps down that road, after that I'm off the map into "write my own" land. The first is Slackware, though it's become a lot friendlier recently. The second is Linux From Scratch.
However, Gentoo is really not that bad if you're patient. If you do exactly what these detailed instructions recommend, things should go very smoothly and you'll have a nice working system. Part of my problem was the little deviations I made along the way. But that's what makes it fun, isn't it?
Meanwhile, I can recommend SimplyMEPIS Linux if you want a distro that "just works." It's 32-bit only right now, though, and they seem to have trouble with the whole "community" thing, and perhaps don't really love the concept of the GPL as much as they should. But if you don't care about all that software philosophy stuff, it's very nice.
Ubuntu is maturing rapidly. It has a huge, loyal, helpful fanbase and developer community, and it's easy to install (though not brain-dead) and use. There are some things it isn't very good at yet, though they're working hard on it.
