Re: Is amd64 ready for the desktop?

["Steven M. Bellovin" <smb%cs.columbia.edu@localhost>]

On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:51:04 -0400
"D'Arcy J.M. Cain" <darcy%NetBSD.org@localhost> wrote:

> On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:01:14 +0000
> "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb%cs.columbia.edu@localhost> wrote:
> > > First of all, the NetBSD system itself seems to be extremely
> > > stable. As a server system I suspect it is just fine.  All of my
> > > problems seem to be with add-on packages and only a handful at
> > > that.  Unfortunately those few packages are the ones that I need
> > > on the desktop.
> > > 
> > I'm running amd64 on my laptop.  I agree with your assessment --
> > the OS is very solid, but some apps are problematic.
> 
> In fact, I do have one problem which does seem to be system related.
> Every once in a while the system just freezes solid.  I can't even get
> the num lock or caps lock lights to change.  All I can do is reboot.
> Since it is not an actual panic I don't even get a core file to
> investigate.  I don't know if it is amd64 specific though as I have
> recently started serving home directories to my wife's computer so it
> may be related to NFS.  However, I switched to amd64 around the same
> time so it is hard to tell.
> 
> I will be switching back to i386 anyway due to all the apps problems
> so I will soon know if it is a general problem or amd64 specific.
> Beyond that I don't seem to be in a position to debug much else
> unless someone has a suggestion.
> 
I'd guess that it's more likely to be NFS-related -- I've had zero
incidents like that on my amd64 laptop.  (Of course, it may be amd64
plus NFS.)


                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb