is Ubuntu a 64-bit OS?

demonikal

demonikal

New Member
I want to learn Linux and I've heard a lot of good things about it. Figuring I'm going to be building my first PC (ASUS M4A78T-E mobo, AMD Phenom II X4 920 Quad Core OEM Processor, Thermaltake TR2-R1 Socket AM2/939/754 CPU Cooler, Corsair CMX4GX3M1A1333C9 XMS3 4GB DDR3 RAM, Lite-On Internal 24X DVD Writer, Seagate Barracuda 1TB Low Power Hard Drive, Ultra E-Torque ATX Mid-Tower Case, Ultra LSP550 550-Watt Power Supply), I might want to get Ubuntu or another version of Linux.

The specs say that with the 4 RAM slots, it's upgradeable to 8GB of RAM with a 32-bit system and 16GB of RAM with a 64-bit system. So, my question is if Ubuntu is a 64-bit operating system. I already have Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit full version, and it's not that I don't want to spend the money for Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit...the thing is I'd like to put Linux on.

I'll be taking classes to prepare myself for the CompTIA Linux+ certification anyway, so what better way to familiar myself with Linux than with actually having it installed on one of my PCs.

Thanks for any feedback. Happy New Year.
 
It's both. The iso that is titled i386 is 32 bit and amd64 is 64 bit.

here is the link to where you can download 10.4 or 10.10 in either 32 or 64 bit.

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

Just so you know the limit for a 32 bit OS is ~4gb of RAM Not 8gb. Since you are already using 4gb of RAM, Use the 64 bit versions of Ubuntu.
 
Last edited:
I am using Linux Ubuntu 10.04 32-bit presently and it works great. I would recommend going with 32-bit Ubuntu 10.04 at the present time.
 
I highly recommend OpenSUSE.
A bit of a large download (4 GB), but you can test it out with the LiveCD download options below the main download section. After you are done testing it I recommend getting the 4.7 GB DVD image, it contains several desktop environments, including GNOME, KDE, XFCE, LXDE, and a few others. It has many features I've been searching for in a Linux distribution, and I'm planning to ditch Ubuntu 10.10 and install OpenSUSE as my main Linux OS.
It's up to you, but I suggest you give it a spin after you've experimented with other distros, I've played with Fedora, Linux Mint, relations in the Ubuntu family, Debian, Gentoo, and a few others, but up till I found OpenSUSE I kept going back to Ubuntu.
But this time, I'm not going back ;)
 
I agree with lucasbytegenius, you should go for OpenSUSE. Before I built my new system (which is actually stunningly similar to yours) I had OpenSUSE on a dual boot with Windows XP. I only used Windows for the video editing/creative stuff that I do, everything else was OpenSUSE. You asked about Ubuntu, and that's what I'm running right now - and I would say yes to that as well. It really depends on your preference. For now I'm forced to use Ubuntu because my new system (running a Phenom II X6 and an Asus M4A78T-E mobo) is quite finicky and virtually refuses to run anything except Ubuntu, that means no Mint, no Fedora, etc. I'll eventually get Windows 7 on here, but for the time being Ubuntu suits me just fine.

Also, as for 32 and 64-bit...I'm running 32 (with 8GB of DDR3). But if you have the 64-bit processor (which you will), why wouldn't you? Might as well get the perks that come with it (your potential 16GB of RAM).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top