Samsung rf711 s02 IT (FNAC version)

[awambawamb]

Hi people!
I've bought the machine of the title in october and I'm searching for a "good" distro to use with. I'm not new to linux (and open source) as I've tried several distros (openSUSE, fedora, arch, openmamba, sabayon) on my previous machines, falling in love with ubuntu until the coming of unity - the new window manager "cooked" my HP zd8000's monitor. it was a 6yo heavyweight laptop tough, now it's working as a desktop, connected to an external monitor
I was surfing distrowatch and noticed mageia. looked nice, so why don't give it a try?

My specs:
i7 processor 2630QM
Nvidia GT540M with 2GB dedicated memory
6GB ram
two 500GB hard disks (one for win7, the other one for my distro. I like to keep them separated... Win7 won't even know of another distro on the pc, and won't get upset for that!)
blue-ray, powered USB3, multi-touch pad (is it supported?) and all the stuff.

BUT. In the wiki I've read that it would be unpractical to create a 64-bit liveCD... can I upgrade the 32-bit version to 64 once installed, or it would be a big mess? I'm not too good with text installers... Arch almost gave me nightmares!

[djennings]

Converting a 32 bit install to 64 bit is technically possible but not worth the effort. If you want a 64bit install the most practical way to get it is to install from the 64bit DVD or the dual architecture CD. Neither are live CDs, they do a normal install which means you will get more packages and choices than installing from a Live CD. (It is not a text install. A nice easy to follow GUI)
Neither the DVD or dual arch CD contains any proprietary or patent bound packages, but if you just declare the 'tainted' and 'nonfree' online repositories, after install, then you will have all the packages available.

If installing from the dual arch CD it will do a very minimal install unless you declare during the install to use online repositories for packages not on the CD.