amd64 or i386 for desktop use?

[Aline de Freitas]

Em Wednesday 05 March 2008 02:36:33 Isaac Mushinsky escreveu:
> I have new hardware (Abit ip35-pro, Intel Q6600), and was contemplating
> installing FreeBSD/arch, but now realise that I am going to have some
> problems.
>
> My nvidia card will not be of much use (GeForce 8500GT), since
> nvidia-drivers are not there for amd64, and the open source nv driver does
> not even support XVideo extension for these cards. I can downgrade to a nv
> 7xxx series card, which works better with the open driver. I do not mind
> loss of 3D support, but would need basic things like mplayer.
>
> So my questions are:
> 1. Should I get nvidia 7xxx or an ATI card? Which card is most likely to
> work reasonably well? No fancy features required, but may be appreciated
> later. 
I prefer ATI ones, like r300, in which works out-of-the-box with the 
opensource xf86-video-ati. 

> 2. Any problems with flash plugin (flash7 for now, I do not mean the 
> confounded flash9 headache)?
flash7 through nspluginwrapper works fine with firefox compiled by ports.
flash9 is working through windows firefox (via wine).

> 3. Other casual desktop user problems I should be aware of?

> 4. Is it worth it? Perhaps I should stay with i386, but it is a pity not to
> be able to use the new machine to its full potential.
With amd64 you'll not get wine, VESA, boot splash screen and maybe more stuff. 
Even googleearth I couldn't make it work in amd64. So I think it's not a good 
idea to use amd64 as a desktop. 

>
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