[plug] AMD64 distros

[Michael]

For the last 5 months or so since I've had an AMD64 system and have been 
running 32 bit distributions because I cannot find a good, practical 64 
bit distro for the AMD64 that has a good method for 32 bit compatibility 
and is updated often.

I have tried Gentoo64, Mandrake64 and Fedora64. Gentoo64 seemed OK to 
install etc but there were so many problems with various packages not 
compiling and to setup a 32 bit environment is traumatic. Fedora64 just 
never worked properly from the start. I've seen the same for Fedora 
ia32 so I've decided never to touch it again! :). 

Mandrake64 runs fine and does the 32 bit environment properly IMHO but the 
software is old (I like running bleeding edge). I guess what I want is a 
hybrid 64/32 system similar to what Suse and Mandrake have but updated 
more often.

Actually I probably need to understand how 64bit programs work. I really 
don't know if its even possible for 64 bit programs to open and use 32 bit 
libraries. (e.g wine). Any thoughts/comments on the above?

Regards
Michael Collard