The Quest Of Finding Linux Compatible Hardware

[Michael]

Here's another exclusive preview

Basically showing off an example of what happens if you're looking up a specific product on OpenBenchmarking.org... Current prototype; pardon some of the reviews and global matches listed not being a perfect match, I am still tuning the search algorithms.

[Michael]

P.S. just how easy it is to benchmark off of OpenBenchmarking.org will be revealed in a video probably next week... With Phoronix Global it's already easy in doing something like phoronix-test-suite benchmark 123213213213, but with OpenBenchmarking.org it's made even easier

[MNKyDeth]

The quest for Linux-compatible hardware is actually quite simple:

* Get any sound card except X-Fi.
* Get an NVidia graphics card.

That's all there is to it

Actually I wont use any audio card if it does not have hardware mixing in Linux. So if I want to stay in the cost effective space I need to use creative almost exclusively.

I have gone from audigy2zs to the X-fi as the sound quality is tons better. I like more than one sound to be able to be played back at the same time from multiple apps at the same time so hardware mixing is the only way to do this currently unless you want to use a cpu hogging pulseaudio setup.

Of course if you require 3d with performance there is no choice but nvidia imo.

[RealNC]

I have gone from audigy2zs to the X-fi as the sound quality is tons better. I like more than one sound to be able to be played back at the same time from multiple apps at the same time so hardware mixing is the only way to do this currently unless you want to use a cpu hogging pulseaudio setup.

Nah, works just fine here without PulseAudio. And on everyone else's system too. I used to require hardware mixing back when I had a 486 at 33Mhz. And even *then* it wan't *that* big of a deal. Nowadays, it's totally irrelevant. Creative still tries to convince people it's important though, even though benchmarks show clearly that software mixing uses sub-1% CPU utilization.

Just a relict from the past.

[coats]

The quest for Linux-compatible hardware is actually quite simple:

* Get any sound card except X-Fi.
* Get an NVidia graphics card.

That's all there is to it

I call BS: My graphics server at work is using an nVidia Quadro NVS 420,
Mandriva 2010.0 PowerPack, and a Dell 3008WFP monitor running at 2560x1600
physical / 3200x2400 virtual.

It REFUSES to respect the virtual screen size, and I have to jump through
hoops to make any of the window managers usable because of that failure.
I have not had that trouble with any previous graphics card, counting
nine different machines, four different video-card vendors, and many releases
of RedHat, Krud, Fedora, CentOS, SuSE, and Mandriva over the last fifteen
years.

And don't tell me not to use virtual: for the kind of work I do (very high res GIS),
I need all the screen area I can get.

[curaga]

This will be very interesting

For example I would like to find out what's the 1Gbit ethernet card with lowest cpu usage in network-heavy tests. And then the same divided by card price (or would that be better multiplied?).

[?John?]

You rock!

There's only one thing I can think of to properly describe what you're talking about:
FUCKING AWESOME!

[?John?]

If you don't care about standards as I do so be it, but standards and openness give you more options and empower you and the community, so those kinds of things are better to support.

Oh, man! I've just been talking about this with one of my clients. Took the words right out of my mouth. Open standards are the guarantee of freedom. Right now, that freedom comes at a cost not everyone is willing to pay, but they're definitely the best way to go in the long run.

[apexwm]

A little exaggerated

I've been a sys admin using Linux for over 13 years, and I've VERY seldom encountered hardware that was not supported, and I've dealt with countless name brand workstation and server machines. If you are building your own systems as I think this article implies, then yes you will come across problems. But most users are probably purchasing systems from vendors like HP, Acer, Dell, etc. In that case, you have a very good chance of everything just working since there are a LOT of users out there testing the same systems. There are many more variables when you are building your system from scratch, not every single device can be tested.

In regards to graphics cards, stick with nVidia which has excellent support. There is both a proprietary and open source driver available. Stay away from ATI which has a long history of issues with Linux.

[Svartalf]

In regards to graphics cards, stick with nVidia which has excellent support.

And your remarks are why we need such a database of support. Not all NVidia parts have "excellent support". If you buy a laptop with Optimus tech in it, you'll get nothing but the Intel GPU supported for that machine...ever... That's something with NVidia. It's about the same story as the X300 Mobile parts that ATI fielded. Big fat joke for Linux.

There is both a proprietary and open source driver available.

Whoo... That's a completely accurate statement, and abjectly worthless to most people looking for answers for Linux graphics support.

1) Neither driver supports Optimus technology GPUs.
2) The FOSS driver doesn't support everything and is still quite in it's infancy.
3) While the closed driver works well in many cases, it can still give you fits when it does things an application doesn't expect from it- and it's had issues from time to time.

Stay away from ATI which has a long history of issues with Linux.

That's a mixed bag, really. Back when Doom3 came out, it was a bit of a push. For some configurations, it worked well. I know, I had a high-end ATI card with a dual screen setup for work when I was doing stock market software. There was some variablility in things over release versions and each person has their pet-peeve on the driver (streaming video being one of the more consistent ones for most people...).

It should be noted that the FOSS drivers for AMD are actually in better shape and perform well with more stuff than the NVidia ones. And, moreover, ATI gave out info freely to the Linux community back as far back as the Rage PRO. I know, I have some of that info from when I was doing Utah-GLX work. Same with the Rage128. It was when they went to the Radeon that the lawyers and that sort got in the way of things and cut us off for that long period before we got info and help again from them.

So...your info's not quite as good as you think of it.