Suse Linux Professional 9.3 64bit

Having said that, 64bit involves some risks and compromises. Driver support is the main issue. AMD has a handy table of current 64bit device driver support for Linux and Windows. Some drivers have fewer features in their 64bit versions, or are still in beta and may cause problems. Even if you are downloading and compiling software from source, you may run into configuration issues or compatibility problems. As with all 64bit systems, applications will typically consume more Ram, because every variable that addresses memory has to allow for larger numbers.

If you have more than 4GB of Ram installed, 64bit is worthwhile since the system will be able to run more applications simultaneously, or applications that deal with very large documents or data structures. Another advantage is that 64bit processors perform some calculations faster, and the AMD64 extensions include extra registers that enhance performance.

Games, Cad systems, statistical processing and large databases are good candidates for 64bits. However, few desktop systems currently have this much Ram. As yet, 64bit is not truly compelling on the desktop, but soon will be as hardware advances.

More generally, Suse 9.3 is an impressive package but not flawless. When you install, you choose between the default KDE, or the Gnome desktop environment. It's not an easy decision since you get a different set of applications as well as different desktops. We ran into minor problems with both. On Gnome there was an empty floating window called Suseplugger that should have been invisible, while the KDE installation failed to mount the Windows NTFS drives on our dual-boot system and we had to edit the fstab configuration file manually.

These are small quirks in an otherwise positive experience, but reinforce the view that Linux is still more suitable for enthusiasts than for everyday users, unless suitable support is at hand.

• Pentium or Athlon with AMD64/EM64T for 64bit (Not Itanium)
• 256MB of Ram or higher
• 2.5GB of disk space