Making More Informed Linux Hardware Choices

Matthew Tippett and I talked this weekend at the Southern California Linux Expo on the matter of making more informed Linux hardware choices. While Linux hardware support has come along way, it is not perfect and there are still shortcomings. However, with Phoronix Test Suite 3.0 and OpenBenchmarking.org, which were released in Los Angeles, we believe there are now the capabilities to dramatically enhance the Linux hardware and software experience. These freely available tools are not only a game-changer for Linux, but have the capabilities to impact how projects and organizations handle their Windows, Mac OS X, BSD, and Solaris testing as well.

On the following pages are the slides with additional notes too. For those interested in the PDF of the slides, they are available on Phoronix-Test-Suite.com. An unedited, quick video of the SCALE presentation will be available in the coming hours while the professional, edited video of the talk will be available from the SCALE organizers in the coming weeks.

OpenBenchmarking.org and Phoronix Test Suite 3.0 is what we are talking about. It was also developed under the codename Iveland.

Linux hardware support has improved a lot in recent years, but there are still troublesome areas particularly with support for some new graphics cards and motherboards. There's also a new set of problems facing Linux users such as the options between multiple drivers supporting the same hardware, what distributions include a supported driver version or back-ported support, etc. There will always be the same problems Windows users face as well of finding the hardware with the best value for your intended use, etc.

Phoronix.com was founded by myself, Michael Larabel, in 2004 after having been frustrated with Linux hardware support during the Mandrake days. Phoronix Test Suite 1.0 was released in 2008 after the formalization of the internal test tools developed to run benchmarks at Phoronix.com. Phoromatic came afterwards as an enterprise-ready tool for automatic tests across a test farm and triggering tests on a timed or per-commit basis. OpenBenchmarking.org is arriving this weekend with Phoronix Test Suite 3.0.