Posted on 12/24/2010 6:24:00 PM PST by Charlespg
pingux
“...unless it’s using a PAE (physical address extension) kernel....”
Right you are. PAE adds 4 address bits for a total of 36 bits. That’s 64GB on a 32 bit PAE linux kernel, 4GB on a standard 32 bit kernel.
I’ve been using a 64bit kernel since around 2002. It was very painful at first but support has vastly improved in recent years.
I still find it to be a problem. When you’re a Linux user, you’re already the bastard stepchild. When you use 64bit Linux, you’re the bastard stepchild of the bastard stepchild.
That should switch up soon and make 32bit more of a pain in the near future, as 64bit becomes more widely adopted than 32bit, but I don’t see us being there yet.
32 bit operating systems have a maximum cap of 4 GB RAM.
Subtract the video card ram and it will give you an approximation of the useable RAM.
The mother board can impose other limitations (also Windows).
It is possible under Linux to use PAE (Physical Address Extension) to increase what can be addressed (theoretical limit 64GB), but Microsoft XP does not use PAE.
Some explanations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension
This is like “bank switching” from years ago.
—
If you “need” more RAM capacity, use the 64 bit version of Linux.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64
* Larger physical address space:
The original implementation of the AMD64 architecture The original implementation of the AMD64 architecture implemented 40-bit physical addresses and so could address up to 1 TB (240 bytes) of RAM.[1](p4) Current implementations of the AMD64 architecture (starting from AMD 10h microarchitecture) extend this to 48-bit physical addresses[9] and therefore can address up to 256 TB of RAM.
“That should switch up soon and make 32bit more of a pain in the near future, as 64bit becomes more widely adopted than 32bit, but I don’t see us being there yet.”
At work we’re using 64bit RHEL exclusively on our servers. We have some 32bit Centos Desktops but the main servers are all 64bit. At home I use Gentoo on an amd64 Opteron. Support is so much better today than even 2 or 3 years ago. 64bit apps are widely available and if they aren’t the 32bit version runs fine 95% of the time. I’d say we’re there.
And to respond to Texas Fossil, the processor can address 48 bits but the linux kernel can’t. Not yet anyway. It’s currently limited to 44 bits. You would be hard pressed to find a motherboard that would support anywhere near that amount of memory :)
Thanks for that clarification. I understand this in generality, but relied on others descriptions.
I already knew the problems with 64 bit apps. For a while that was a serious issue. I have never run a 64 bit PC.
I tried Ubuntu using a “live” thumbdrive. Liked it, but for the life of me, could not get it to work with the wireless card. Haven’t messed with it since.
I will second thoolou’s recommendation of Linux Mint (current version is 10 aka “Julia” and comes in 32 bit and 64 bit flavors). Linux Mint is a build up from Ubuntu — bottom line: more things work the first time.
Check out the Synaptic Package Manager. A whole kaboodle of free software to add.
You will probably find, as I did, that Windows has things to recommend it as do Linux distributions.
Good Geeking to You and Merry Christmas.
I’m using Ubuntu and I’m quite happy with it.
What kind of enhancements does Mint have?
I have tried about 10 major distros, and like Linux Mint overall the best, but found Peppermint Linux, based upon Ubuntu, to be the best by far for old PCs/ I have it on a 450mhz box, 384mb ram for someone who just uses it for Internet access, and it runs Firefox, OpenOffice, TheWord Bible software (check out BPBible also) etc. quite well and as fast as Windows 98 would.
I myself use a much tweaked XP, while in over 10 years of heavy Internet use i only have had one virus using Windows, which i spotted under W/98se as i checked what was running. Thanks be to God. Pray and press.
I do have Linux Mint on a second HD (where an optical drive would normally be) but the major drawback is the legal codec issue. (1Pt. 2:13) As far as i can tell it is illegal to play DVD’s and other formats which use proprietary codecs in countreis le the USA, though you can buy them form Fluendo. While Peppermint apparently comes with DVD codecs they are not used, and i plan to remove them, while the Linux Mint is the universal installer that does not have them.
Linux advocates also should not say Linux is easy as Windows, as there can be a substantial learning curve do get some things working as they should, or as you would like (its permissions restrictions can also be an issue on secondary drives, but not as much as Vista), with some versions more then others, while the lack of uniformity has some drawbacks.
But I am glad to have the Linux option, and it has lots of potential, if the codec issue could just be solved i would promote it.
I loaded Ubuntu onto an old box in the basement. It took five minutes from sing on to get connected wireless. It actually took longer for me to retrieve my password for the router than it did to get connected.
As a different viewpoint (and one with much experience), I will say that Linux can be as easy, or easier, than Windows to use.
However, it is different than Windows. Menus are different, windows can act differently, commands are different. That difference may take some time for people to get used to, which can translate into the perception of difficulty.
Linux, and Unix in general, is not quite as forgiving of mistakes as Windows is. It doesn't try to guess what you want, and will do what you tell it to do--even though you may tell it to do something different than what you intended. :)
Nobody will ever need more memory than that! ;-)
Linux security is generally better than Windows for most users. The bad stuff is Windows-specific and just won’t run on Linux.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t security issues, just that the bugs and exploits target the huge Windows user base since there isn’t an economic incentive to go after Linux users. That said, the security model in Linux is pretty equivalent to that on Mac OSX.
If you’re using a computer to play media, browse the web and do basic tasks like word processing and email, Linux does a good job. Finding and installing applications in Ubuntu is easy with a program that works much like an app store. You just find the program you want and install from one central repository. No downloading and installing like Windows.
The downside is that most Linux software apart from server applications is a bit behind the best Windows and Mac software. Programs like Open Office or the photo editing program Gimp are always trying to catch up with MS Office or Adobe Photoshop. They do basic things well, but as an example, if you need color management for pre-press, you can’t use Gimp to edit photos.
I have done three Mint installs, each was quicker and faster than any windoze install. Ten year olds to college kids use this machine and no one had any problems making the switch.
Merry Christmas..
I can see how it can be, but (esp in the past) much depends upon learning commands, which is like going back to DOS, while the diversity of distros works against the standardized procedures in of Windows. Even getting software can vary, along with errors messages about missing libraries, etc. I concur with your note on intuitiveness. And a perusal of Linux forums shows the problems users have, including comprehensible instructions.
I like speed of accessibility and info, ease of which can much vary with Linux distro, as well as how or find it. One can easily make kbrd. shortcuts to apps in Windows (but i use AutoHotKey myself), and while you can do the latter in Linux but how to do it, or just configure the keyboard can very much.
And i never did succeeded on getting full R+W rights to external or secondary drives in some Linux distros that did not have it by default, despite varying scripts i was advised to run.
Of course, there are lots of universal shortcuts most Windows users do not know. With any recent distro of the latter i can just hit the Windows key (which you have to find out what it is called in each Linux) and hit Pause/Break and it brings up the System window with its basic info and tabs for much more. W/ key and R and type dxdiag and hit Enter provides even more, W/ key and E gives Windows Explorer accesses all drives, while finding .cpl extensions in the System32 folder will enable more. Talk later.
Thanks for that. If you were “a Mac,” you’d have said, “there is mo downside!”
Ubuntu Studio is great.
Apostle Claver tells the world how the real party of racism is the Democrats
“windows xp can only utilize 3 gigs of ram.”
Any 32 bit OS has a limit of about 3.5gig. You need a 64 bit version of the operating system. My kids have 6G so they use 64 bit Vista.
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