Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo, new computer, still a bit confused

[CJoeB <colleen.beamer@gmail.com>]

On 07/23/11 18:24, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Saturday 23 July 2011 16:11:20 Mick did opine thusly:
>>> So, if I choose the amd64 iso and Stage 3, it doesn't have to be
>>> on an AMD machine?
>> Correct, you will use this iso (or systemrescueCD or Knoppix) and a
>> Staqe 3  equivalent to build a system on an Intel 64bit CPU.
> Just to flesh it out a bit more:
>
> The name amd64 came about because it's the 64 bit instruction set that 
> AMD designed for their 64-bit chips. There was an earlier 64 bit cpu 
> from Intel, but we don't talk about it anymore (and it has nothing to 
> do with this topic).
>
> Anyway, the name is a nod to the company that designed it, and has 
> nothing to do with the manufacturer of your CPU. Intel later had to 
> eat humble pie and implement AMD's design just to stay relevant in the 
> market, that's why 64 bit Intel chips run on an architecture that 
> Gentoo calls amd64.
>
> The 32 bit design is called x86 because that was the general name in 
> use for 20+ years prior. Most other distros call the amd64 design by 
> the name x86_64 or similar, Gentoo is the most visible exception.

Thanks for this, Alan!  And thanks to all for the responses.

Honestly, I wasn't so much worried about the hardware breaking.  I took
the leap and wiped Windows off my laptop and never had any issues.  But
I've never dealt with 64-bit stuff and I wanted to make sure that I made
the right choices.  Thanks to the feedback from this list, I am
confident that I can.  If I run into any problems, this will be the
first place I turn!  :-)

Warranty is not a super huge issue.  The computer I got was a super good
deal - it came with 1 year warranty, but I never purchased extended
warranty.  And to be honest, I've had a total of 4 Dell computers and
never had any hardware issues at all (touch wood!).  My laptop is 4
years old and I've reinstalled Gentoo on it about 3 times - the original
install, once because I screwed up the MBR when I hit the "media" button
instead of the power button and then recently when I kept getting blocks
for KDE packages and KDE had gone to KDE SC.

Thanks, again! :-)

Colleen


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