Looking to Switch, What Should I Expect?

arew264 · 2008-08-09 04:19:00

I just upgraded my Arch box to a 64 bit dual core AMD processor, and I'm looking to switch over to 64 bit Arch.
I know I'll lose flash, but is there anything else that I should expect to change? I'm told that there's a slight increase in general speed, is it noticeable in A/V encoding and decoding? I seem to be doing that a lot lately.

skottish · 2008-08-09 04:37:02

arew264 wrote:

I just upgraded my Arch box to a 64 bit dual core AMD processor, and I'm looking to switch over to 64 bit Arch.
I know I'll lose flash, but is there anything else that I should expect to change? I'm told that there's a slight increase in general speed, is it noticeable in A/V encoding and decoding? I seem to be doing that a lot lately.

Lose Flash? What kind of crazy talk is that? I have Flash 10 beta running great using nspluginwrapper (see wiki: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … on_Arch64). The Java plug-in is running through openjdk6 from testing.

You will see an increase in performance in encoding times. This is straight across the board from my experience with FFmpeg, Mencoder, x264, Xvid, and VLC.

neowolf · 2008-08-09 04:58:59

As said, you're not missing out on Flash. The biggest change is that getting 32-bit apps to run takes more work. Naturally this only comes up when you're talking about stuff you can't compile, but for the most part there are work arounds. Until recently the biggest ouch was the loss of a java plugin in most browsers, but openjdk6 brings salvation there.

And as said, video encoding is actually one of the places where benefits are most evident.

skottish · 2008-08-09 05:04:31

I had good luck getting 32 bit closed source stuff running with lib32 libraries. Skype is really easy to set up, as well as the Lightscribe software with the Lacie front end. I've also had Wine running before but I really have no use for Windows programs. You may have to do some extra work to get 32 bit software working, but it seems like most of it can be done.

arew264 · 2008-08-09 16:11:33

I have an ATI integrated graphics card, will I still be able to get drivers for that? Can I use the proprietary ones?

skottish · 2008-08-09 16:15:23

arew264 wrote:

I have an ATI integrated graphics card, will I still be able to get drivers for that? Can I use the proprietary ones?

Catalyst is in the 64 bit repos. There are at least two others also. I don't use ATI so I can't tell you what the current state of the drivers are. There's at least one ongoing thread here about the state of current ATI drivers. Search for catalyst and you'll find it.

neowolf · 2008-08-09 16:35:30

arew264 wrote:

I have an ATI integrated graphics card, will I still be able to get drivers for that? Can I use the proprietary ones?

Just got a new Radeon X1950 Pro here, working fine.

SiC · 2008-08-10 00:58:46

Works fine. Handy hint, make sure you have yaourt installed, it's made installing 32bit stuff easy for me. Run Skype, Eve Online (Official Client) Wine (Bloody Windows Based Statistical Packages) and others, haven't had many problems, those I do have, are usually solved by poking myself in the eyes until I realise what I did wrong

Arch Linux

#1 2008-08-09 04:19:00

Looking to Switch, What Should I Expect?

#2 2008-08-09 04:37:02

Re: Looking to Switch, What Should I Expect?

#3 2008-08-09 04:58:59

Re: Looking to Switch, What Should I Expect?

#4 2008-08-09 05:04:31

Re: Looking to Switch, What Should I Expect?

#5 2008-08-09 16:11:33

Re: Looking to Switch, What Should I Expect?

#6 2008-08-09 16:15:23

Re: Looking to Switch, What Should I Expect?

#7 2008-08-09 16:35:30

Re: Looking to Switch, What Should I Expect?

#8 2008-08-10 00:58:46

Re: Looking to Switch, What Should I Expect?

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