mbm wrote:
If it is now possible to get a fully usable 64 bit personal desktop running I'll give it a go. Anyone got any current experience to share? Mark?
Well I obviously consider mine to be fully usable!
I'm a relatively recent convert to Linux desktops, having used them at a commandline level for servers for ages (my desktop was still Windows as too many things "needed it"). One day NTFS decided to reorganise my data in the same way girlfriends do with CD collections, and suddenly discovered it couldn't find anything, so in a fit of frustration I installed Ubuntu (6.x I think) fully aware that after a week I'd be forced back to go back to Windows, but instead I'm now at 8.04 at work and just started playing with 8.10 (pre-release) at home.
My work desktop is an old 32-bit processor, my home one a newer 64-bit CPU, so I use 32-bit and 64-bit distros respectively. I do use them for different things, but a lot of the core apps (Thunderbird, FireFox, OOo, etc) are the same, and I don't generally notice much difference between them; I can't think of the last time the 64-bit nature of my home O/S has been a limitation in any way.
If I had a 64-bit laptop I might be more careful due to things like wireless drivers but to be honest I'd definitely suggest a 64-bit desktop install as the default choice for any 64-bit CPU owner.