[TriLUG] Debian 7 - 32 or 64

[John F. Davis]

On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 09:18:25AM -0500, Grawburg wrote:
> I'm going to load Debian 7 on a Thinkpad T61 (Core2Duo) and wonder which I should choose  - 32-bit or 64.
> 
> I will be installing Virtual Box to run WinXP and OS/2 (eCS 2.1) if that make any difference.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Brian Grawburg
> Wilson
> 

Hello Brian,

I have that exact same laptop.  I use archlinux 64-bit.  Even though not officially supported, the machine will take up to 8GB ram.  With 8GB ram and a SSD you can boot to gmail login in 30seconds.  In fact, I used this machine to get steam working on linux to get TF2 linux penguin when it was announced.  

With arch nearly everything will be supported: nvidia, multimedia keys, wifi, external video, you name it.  The only thing which I have not been able to configure is bluetooth headset.  I don't know if its a limitation with my headset or the software.  Bluetooh mouse does work.

I use the box with xen, virtual box, and vmware.  If you choose vmware, there are patches available to port the vmware block and net modules to 3.11 kernel.  I frequently use two vms, linux and windows xp to do the labs in "Practical Malware Analysis" and its very smooth.

John