AMD vs Intel

I'm not even sure I have the right competitors up there; I'm talking about AMD / Athlon vs Intel / Core 2 Duo, or some combination thereof. I just got a brand spanking new AMD 64 computer for work and I have been having a heck of a time getting Ubuntu to install on it. Right now I have Dapper Drake (for those not in the know, not the newest version of Ubuntu) installed, and I had to install that using the i386 version and networking isn't working. The LiveCD for any of the others basically ends up not crashing at 57%. I wonder what happens at 57% that it makes an install crash there?

Next steps - I'm going to try the AMD64 version of Edgy Eft (the newest version) again. We'll see where that gets us and if that gets us to absolute nowhereland, then I think I might try something else. Right now XP Pro with a virtual Ubuntu install is looking awfully tempting, but I may actually use this time to try out a different distribution of Linux, which I'm sure also will not go particularly well, mostly due to the limitations of my knowledge.

I'd recommend going with the Core 2 Duo if you're looking at buying a new computer and putting Ubuntu on it. I installed it and had no problems with it running. Well, when I say "no problems" I mean "completely manageable problems that were fairly easy to solve thanks to a well written guide to installing Ubuntu on a Dell d620" which is near enough to "no problems" as to be interchangeable.

Google, here I come - let's find out what runs well on my new machine!