More info about an eventual 64 Edition

[ElQuia]

Well Hello Guys (and Gals):
1- I´m a life time windows (arrrghhh) user, started out there with DOS 4.0.
2- I´m now on Vista x64 running Ubuntu x64 in a VMWare machine and MINT 5.0 in a VirtualBox (Sun) machine.
3- Rig is AMD AM2 4200 w/2GB RAM and 2 x 250GB SATA in RAID (stripping).
4- If I can afford it, next month I´ll be changing micro to an phenom x4 quadcore and 4 GB of ram
5- Maybe, repeat: maybe I´ll start dual booting windows and linux.
6- As a long life windows user: vista is the best WINDOWS to date. With XP I had at lease once a week a BSOD. It´s been a year with vista and ONLY ONCE IVE HAD A BSOD (installed a bad driver). I havn´t turnd off my pc in the las 30 days. Vista works and it IS fast guys.

Base Line is: I like to do everything faster, I do a lot of image and audio editing, some video also.

But... I hate Bill. I Love to tinker, AKA Linux. Started with Mandriva, arrhhhggghhh, Followed w ubuntu... DISCOVERED MINT: I Love the eye candy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE that its easier to use than ubuntu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. But... there are a LOT of proggies that you CANT find for linux: gimp is NOT photoshop. UbuntuStudio is NOT Audition, etc. So I will live with both, BUT ONLY 64 BIT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

I believe MINT is the right way to Go Clem!!!!, but remember windows 3.11 versus 95, aka 16 bits versus 32 bits: Im hearing the same stuff now. 64bit (and in a couple of years 128 bit) is the FUTURE

PLEASE: WHEN WILL WE SEA X64 MINT????????????????'

KEEP ON WITH THE GREAAAAATTTTTTTTT WORK

[merlwiz79]

Well this is what we have for a basic schedule but DON"T think this is how it will turn out.

The XFCE and KDE CEs are almost ready and they could already be released as they are now. I'm planning on giving each of them the traditional 2 weeks of community testing and to separate these two CEs with one week interval. For the XFCE CE I'll be submitting BETA 025. For the KDE CE I've got minor changes planned based on BETA 041, so I'll probably be submitting BETA 042 to Exploder.

The following plan is what I have in mind:

Friday 18/07 --> XFCE CE RC1
Friday 25 /07--> KDE CE RC1
Friday 01/08 --> XFCE CE
Friday 08/08 --> KDE CE

I'll also be rolling out an R2 on Main and its new Universal Edition. Once all of this is out I'll be experimenting with the x64 edition.

PS: Exploder, Shane, I haven't looked at the Fluxbox CE lately.. if it's close to stable let me know so we can plan it as well.

Clem.

[wierdo124]

Hopefully it happens soon, i'd like to use all of my RAM

[merlwiz79]

Clem has started working on th 64bit.
Not sure how much he has done or what problems he might be having.
I just know that he has started tinkering with it.

[merlwiz79]

Looks like he has started to set up the repo.
http://packages.linuxmint.com

[wierdo124]

Will there be a way to go to mint64 without losing all your regular mint stuff? Or will i have to reformat the partition?

[cmost]

You could keep your /home partition, but your system would have to be reinstalled. You can't go from 32bit to 64bit without reinstalling the system from scratch. Sorry...

[miket]

Hi all ...

Interesting debate

Here's my 2 pennies worth ....

Having more than 4GB is not unusual, I have a customer who uses Ubuntu 64bit with quad core processor and 8GB of RAM for professional video editing.
This was a special build machine and O/S / Software package that we built to meet their exact requirements.
If I had a 64bit version of Mint available to me then my client would have jumped at it as they really liked the facilities that it offered,
however it's not available (yet!!) and hence we went the Ubuntu route ....

I have another customer who's server uses a 64bit Ubuntu server build with 4 Virtual Machines (servers) running on it, again quad core and 8GB RAM
with 60TB of disk space ...

There are a lot of opportunities in the commercial world for Linux / Mint to make an impact, having a 64bit version will help broaden that market place.

Mike.

[cmost]

First of all, you can utilize 4+ GB of RAM on a 32 Bit Linux installation by simply enabling the option when compiling your kernel. This feature has been available for quite some time (and in fact, I'm running such a kernel at this very moment and it works splendidly on my system with 4 GB of RAM.) Furthermore, 4+ GB support is already available in the stock Ubuntu kernel that shipped with 8.04 LTS (which Mint 5.0 uses, unless I'm mistaken.) Secondly, you have to keep in mind the target audience of Linux Mint. While it might be possible that Clem is eyeing Enterprise domination, I doubt it. The purpose of Linux Mint, at least as long as I've been a member of the community, has been simple, easy and elegant solutions for desktop users. The goal has never been to target enterprise server rooms or super computers. In spite of this, I do happen to agree that a 64 Bit version of Linux Mint would be another jewel in an already fantastic crown. Since Ubuntu offers such a version, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities for the Mint development team to create a derivative work for the Mint community. On the other hand, Ubuntu moves too quickly and its software becomes outdated every six months as new versions are released and old versions stagnate. I'm holding out for a Debian based Linux Mint, which is seems to be in the works. With the breadth of software and options available for Debian, a Mint edition would offer the best of all worlds and a slew of new opportunities including 64 Bit support AND Enterprise solutions.

[miket]

Hi !

First of all, you can utilize 4+ GB of RAM on a 32 Bit Linux installation by simply enabling the option when compiling your kernel. This feature has been available for quite some time (and in fact, I'm running such a kernel at this very moment and it works splendidly on my system with 4 GB of RAM.) Furthermore, 4+ GB support is already available in the stock Ubuntu kernel that shipped with 8.04 LTS (which Mint 5.0 uses, unless I'm mistaken.)

Yes I'm fully aware of this, however in test the 64bit version of the O/S actually handled the video editing tasks faster than the 32bit O/S with the kernel extension for memory management above 4GB. This may have been down to the fact that memory is managed in larger chunks.

Secondly, you have to keep in mind the target audience of Linux Mint. While it might be possible that Clem is eyeing Enterprise domination, I doubt it. The purpose of Linux Mint, at least as long as I've been a member of the community, has been simple, easy and elegant solutions for desktop users. The goal has never been to target enterprise server rooms or super computers.

These people are "Desktop Users" they just happen to be video editing specialists!
If we push Mint into a corner and label it "None Commercial Desktop Users Only" then we'd be sending it to it's death !
Commercial users like the facilities, ease of use and reliability that Mint offers as much as anyone else does.
Bill Gates wouldn't be where he is now if he'd said "Windows is for home users only"

In spite of this, I do happen to agree that a 64 Bit version of Linux Mint would be another jewel in an already fantastic crown. Since Ubuntu offers such a version, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities for the Mint development team to create a derivative work for the Mint community. On the other hand, Ubuntu moves too quickly and its software becomes outdated every six months as new versions are released and old versions stagnate. I'm holding out for a Debian based Linux Mint, which is seems to be in the works. With the breadth of software and options available for Debian, a Mint edition would offer the best of all worlds and a slew of new opportunities including 64 Bit support AND Enterprise solutions.

Could the 64bit version of Mint not be based off of the Ubuntu version ?
I too like native Debian without all the "Ubuntu Interference" however this is the route the existing version has already taken so it would make sense to continue along the same lines
with the 64bit version.

Perhaps both is the best option

Mike.

[srikkanth87]

vista is good expect it needs more ram, i have been using vista for long time it is far good than xp and it does not crash like xp and more secure compared to xp only thing is it is slower...

i hope to see media centre and medial players in mint ......it is good to have a media player where we can browse all our media folders from....like windows media player.......
...i think amarok has this feature but not polished