Confused about 64-bit iso; If not a server, then Download a recent Fedora

[Rick Stevens]

Doug A. HASLETT-Digital Video wrote:
> Chris Henderson, Which CPU do you have; an Intel Core 2 Duo or an AMD x2 ?
> Either one will run x86-64.
> If you have a different CPU, may need another version (or stay 32 bit OS!)
> Am assuming; 1 U R new to GNU/Linux OS; and 2 possibly migrating away from M$ Windoz, 3 not really in need of Server software, 4 ended up in Redhat lists BY FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS!
> Would recommend using recent Fedora OS (#9). 10 is still in testing but will be released very shortly/later in 2008. Choice depends on age of your equipment, maybe better to use Fedora 8.Good luck D8D
> RSVP via email if more info desired as I have 3 years as GNU newbie

Whoa!  Formatting, Doug, formatting!

First, yes, there's only one 64-bit kernel for Intelish processors
(that's both AMD and Intel 64-bit chips).  There are different
kernels for non-Intelish processors (e.g. Sun SPARC, etc.).  The
AMD and Intel 64-bit processors also happily run 32-bit kernels.

There are still issues with a number of third party things not being
available in 64-bit versions (Adobe Flash for example).  Unless the OP
really and truly needs the 64-bit features (e.g. heavy number crunching,
flat memory model, etc.), it may be wiser to use the 32-bit version of
the OS.  For most tasks there's not a huge performance difference
between the 32- and 64-bit versions.

If the OP needs a stable OS, then Red Hat Enterprise (RHEL) 5 or CentOS
5 (built from Red Hat's source RPMs, but relabeled and tweaked a bit)
may be a better bet.  Those of us in "Fedora Land" admit that Fedora is
more of a test bed (I'd even go so far as calling it a beta--others
disagree) for what eventually becomes RHEL (e.g. RHEL 5 is based on
Fedora 6).  We are the "experimental hamsters" for Red Hat, and Fedora
is our maze.

Fedora 9 still has some teething issues and I wouldn't recommend it to a
newbie.  Fedora 10 is due to be released on the 20th and indications are
that it'll be a bit more polished than F9 was but it's still a bit
rough around the edges (the KDE desktop continues to evolve and there
have been some last minute changes regarding which applications will be
included).

I don't recommend Fedora 8 (F8) either as it will cease to be actively 
supported soon.  Generally, a new Fedora is released every 6 months, and 
support for older versions halts two months after its second successor
has been released.  Based on this, F8 will cease to be actively
supported two months after F10 is released (so, mid-January if the F10
schedule holds).

Also note that Fedora and CentOS don't differentiate between "server"
and "desktop" versions.  It depends on what bits you install that sets
the "flavor".  If you install the Gnome or KDE desktops and all of their
associated applications, then you've got a "desktop" machine.  If you
don't, then you have a "server" (command line access only).  And if you
don't boot a "desktop" machine to run level 5 (thereby starting the
GUI system), it runs like a server.  Your choice.

Also note that Fedora and CentOS kernels are essentially the "bigmem,
SMP" kernels with no limit on the number of processors (which was the
primary difference between the old RHEL 4 "AS" and "ES" versions).
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- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer                      ricks at nerd.com -
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