64-bit OS

[Geoffrey Combes]

Advice from Paul Gear and one of my email correspondents is that I 
should switch to  64-bit distros. I shall do so when I next order OS 
DVDs. I back up my home directory to an external HDD. This means that I 
must re-install some applications. This is easy of course if done 
through Ubuntu software, but sometimes the app is not present in the 
repository. For example 17.04 did not have the math app 'Octave' which I 
use from time to time. 17.04 boasted that it could also get applications 
not listed but I haven't found a way of doing that. Another problem with 
OS updating is that I use "Crossover" for a couple of Windows 
applications. It is on 16.04LTS which I will keep rather than pay again 
for further use of "Crossover".

I recently bought a 500 Gb HDD (very cheaply). I will partition it to 
take two Linux OSs. I need to learn more about partitioning. I may try 
installing one of the Linux OSs from an image iso - again! As I have 
said, previous attempts have not been successful because they would not 
boot, this despite the fact that they appear OK. I'll get there eventually.

Geoffrey Combes