CAE 2008

Manually installing the open source packages that interest you with a newer version of a suitable OS would be the way to go. The only problem is if this was going to be your first experience with Linux. Using a package manager is really easy but most of this software cannot be installed with a package manager. It is usually not too hard to install manually but I was overwhelmed at first with the new surroundings to contend with.

If you go with Ubuntu then installation of any software should be almost the same between 32bit and 64bit. There is a bunch of content on the wiki for installing Salome, Code-Saturne, and maybe even a few others on Ubuntu. Ubuntu is also such a popular version of Linux it should be easier to find assistance over on their forums.

I think the general complaint for Ubuntu is that it is too easy to use but as a non-computer science major I dont agree. The popularity might make it more prone to security issues but then again with such a large group of users security flaws are probably identified and fixed faster.

PCLinux had what they called 'the big update' to go from 07-09. There were specific steps to be followed in carrying out this update. It worked fine for me on the first computer but when I installed CAELinux 08 (PCLinux 07) on the second machine it was almost a year later and there had been all kinds of smaller updates that were intended to be applied to computers with the big update already applied. The problem was the package manager didnt see the sequence required. PCLinux users were told to just get the newer version on a live DVD and wipe out the old one. Unfortunately with CAELinux there is no newer version and using their live DVD would wipe out all the great engineering software. For a while there were instructions that could be dug up on the sequence of updates using the package manager but I couldnt get it to work ~6 months ago. The situation is probably worse now since more updates have undoubtedly been released.

PCLinux 07 might work fine if you can sort out what your problem is but I doubt you will be able to upgrade it. Without upgrading it you will not be able to use the package manager to install new software. Firefox, Open Office, etc should be recent enough to work with. An advantage would be that a lot of the tutorials were created with that version of CAELinux.

Best regards,
- Matt Bondy