Ubuntu

32bit or 64bit

Asked by raja

i use linux mint .but in my system monitor it shows ubuntu 8.04.

it shows in terminal uname -a
Linux xxx-laptop 2.6.24-16-generic #1 SMP Thu Apr 10 13:23:42 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

i use LINUXMINT y it shows ubuntu 8.04. my dell studio lap is 64 bit........is my mint is 64bit..how to check it.
In my system monitor it shows
xxx-laptop
--------------
Ubuntu
release 8.04 (hardy)
kernel Linux 2.6.24-16-generic
GNOME 2.22.3

what all the each every letter in the above lones represent ? Who is hardy ? what is kernel ? wat is 2.6.24-16
wat is GNOME ? wat is 2.22.3 ?
pls explain clearly ? i am new to linux from VISTA

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Philip Muškovac
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Best Philip Muškovac (yofel) said : 		#1

I don't know much about linux mint, but after checking their website it seems to be a Ubuntu derivate which means that although it looks different the underlying system is still Ubuntu.
After looking at http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php I understand that you are using Linux Mint 5 which uses Ubuntu 8.04 (Codename: Hardy Heron) as its base. Since It's a LTS (Long Time Support) version it's a good and stable one. Also its the version supported by Dell if I remember correctly.

Next your real question. in your uname -a line your question is already answered. '... i686 ...' means that your are using the 32bit version (which is the recommended version of mint if I understood the documentation of Mint correctly).

Now a bit explanation of the other thins:
The kernel is the system core that manages hardware access, drivers, etc. 2.6.24-16 is the kernel version. Gnome is a desktop environment (the default in Ubuntu). If you're interested there are others like KDE or Xfce for example. ('Linux' is sctritly speaking only the system core, the software you are running on top of it depends on the distribution you are using - like Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Suse, Gentoo, Slackware, and many more) 2.22.3 is the version of GNOME that is used by Mint 5.

Hope I got some things cleared up, feel free to ask again if you don't understand something.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

Linux xxx-laptop 2.6.24-16-generic #1 SMP Thu Apr 10 13:23:42 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

broken down, reads:

Linux = You are running Linux
xxx-laptop = That is your hostname
2.6.24-16-generic = This is your kernel version
SMP = Kernel has multi-processor support
Thu Apr 10 13:23:42 UTC 2008 = Release date
i686 = 32Bit kernel
GNU/Linux = License (I believe)

The kernel is the first thing to get booted and manages RAM and hardware access to the system, when you type commands in a terminal you are commanding the kernel to take some form of action. The kernel is very small in linux but hasthings called 'modules' that you can add and remove to the kernel (they are like drivers). The kernel has some drivers compiled into it already but anything extra must be loaded with the modprobe command. You can see a list of these with the lsmod command

Gnome is a desktop environment and by default uses metacity as a display manager, the desktop environment gives you a base library (gnome uses GTK) and the apps that come with it by default will use this. KDE is another desktop environment and uses kwin as its window manager. You can use different desktop environment apps in any other but you will install a lot of extra dependancies. For example if you install Amarok (KDE based) in Ubuntu (Gnome based) you will need to install Qt libs as Amarok needs them. This is all managed nicely by Synaptic or apt-get etc so as a user you don't really need to worry about it provided you have sufficient space to hold everything needed.

Hardy is a release name of Ubuntu Linux. Just like Vista is a release name of Microsoft Windows. Hardy is release 8.04 and was released in April (4th moth) in 2008, hence 8.04. Intrepid followed and is version 8.10 in October (10th month) of the same year. Hardy is an LTS release (long term support) and will be supported until April 2011 (Desktop) and April 2013 (Server). https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

When a release ceases to be, all the repositorys (the servers you install stuff from) will wipe the packages off and you will get no further updates and will have to upgrade using an alternate CD or some other method. If you stay updated with automatic updates you dont have to worry.

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raja (rajakrammohan) said : 		#3

thanks

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raja (rajakrammohan) said : 		#4

thanks