Please be careful not to recommend the latest software just because it is the latest.
Yes, I agree. Latest does not always mean good. In my previous post, I should said "latest stable version". Lazarus has development and stable releases. Development versions/releases usually contain major bugs, which make them not suitable for production use. Stable releases may still contain bugs, but only minor bugs. Ubuntu default repository always takes too long to update their Lazarus/FPC stable version.
Learn more about Lazarus version numbering:
http://wiki.freepascal.org/Version_NumberingYou didn't answer my question 64bit or 32bit, nor did you say anything about directory choices.
I use 64-bit version OS and Lazarus 64-bit. My computer has 6 GB RAM, 32-bit OS cannot fully support memory 4 GB and above. You can produce 32-bit binaries using 64-bit compiler. Learn more here:
http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Cross_compiling#From_Linux_x64_to_Linux_i386That's an interesting comment about Paradox. Paradox tables are .db, .dbf is dBase. It would be very useful if Free Pascal can read and write Paradox tables without installing the BDE. Even Delphi needs the BDE.
Yes, it is true. I'm sure because I ever wrote a small stock control program using Lazarus + Paradox database, it runs on WinXP without need to install BDE nor Paradox driver.
Learn more about database support in Lazarus/FPC:
http://wiki.freepascal.org/DatabasesMy experience, so far, with Lazarus / Free Pascal is that the Linux installation is designed for Linux experts and I am not one of them.
One of the common problem when upgrading/downgrading or uninstalling/reinstalling Lazarus/FPC I know is it doesn't properly remove the previous installed files. So I often need to manually delete the leftovers:
01. Uninstall lazarus, fpc, fpc-src
02. Delete ~/.lazarus, except: editoroptions, environmentoptions
03. Delete /etc/fp.*
04. Delete /usr/share/fpcsrc
05. Delete /usr/lib/fpc
06. Delete /usr/bin/ppc*
Note:
I keep editoroptions and environmentoptions (step 02) because I want to keep settings I have made on Lazarus.