compiler for ubuntu x86-64

[Mark Morss]

Hello to all.  I have just purchased a copy of Andrei A's book on 
D and I'm about halfway through it. I have some projects in mind 
to which I would like to apply this very interesting language.

I am working on an 8-core machine with x86-64 chips and Ubuntu 
10.04. Am I right that there is no dmd binary available for my 
machine??  I only see i386 and amd64 options when I look at the 
binary download options.

Apparently a build of dmd from source is impossible because the 
dmd backend is proprietary?  (This would seem to me to be a 
stumbling block to D's acceptance, but that is not my concern.)

There is an LLVM compiler, ldc, available via Ubuntu's package 
manager.  Is this any good?

I would rather try out D than use some other options that I have. 
However my experience with compiled languages has convinced me 
that the efficiency of one's compiler, as well its ability 
actually to implement everything that's supposed to be possible 
in the given language, is a very significant concern.  I don't 
want to get up to my elbows in D and discover that something 
doesn't compile or doesn't execute so very well after being 
compiled.

I seached the list for this concern and came up with nothing.  
But I apologize if the Ubuntu x86-64 issue has already been 
addressed.

Best to all.