Using Clear Linux As A Desktop Linux Distribution - It Works Well But With Some "Papercuts"

[ms178]

I don't understand why they created Clear Linux instead of just contributing their perf improvements to any other Linux distro.

Other distributions might need to serve other purposes (e.g. desktop usage with a broader hardware base) limiting optimization opportunities. Being in control of your own distribution avoids many of these limiting factors. It also serves as a showcase to the community. Remember, there is still a performance-limiting mindset when reading many older tutorials on compiling from source that do even warn users on using more aggressive compiler flags ("for 5-10% increase in performance which would not be worth it"). Intel had to counter this mindset with facts that showed that the gains could be far higher with more effort while not compromising anything. And it is just not only about compiler flags, but there are many other optimization angles. And indeed Clear Linux did show a huge impact which did put pressure on other distributions to incorporate more of these.

I am grateful that they showed what can be done and proved the skeptics wrong with hard numbers as shown on Phoronix.

[ms178]

When you consider both Clear and Solus began in 2015, and you look at how far Solus has come and how it has been a desktop trend-setter for years now, it's hard to justify Intel continuing to try to be a desktop player with such a hamstrung distro like Clear. Might want to stick with promoting it as a "benchmarking OS".

I cannot follow your point, as Clear Linux did not focus on the desktop while it was the sole purpose for Solus. Also one of the two has the deep pockets of a multi-billion corporation behind it while the other was struggeling during the last year to keep the project alive at all. I did try Solus myself and it really showed a lot of promise, but there were some problems related to my hardware and their lack of progress really made me move on in the end.

[celrod]

I've been using Clear Linux as a desktop distro for about a month.
The only real problem I faced is building Julia from source because of an OpenBLAS bug. The bug causes OpenBLAS to think their gfortran is ifort, because it pattern matches the "Intel" in "GNU Fortran (Clear Linux OS for Intel Architecture)". That meant I had to modify Julia's build script to pass F_COMPILER=GFORTRAN to get it and OpenBLAS to build correctly.

Otherwise, no issues.
I use my desktops for programming / statistics / data science. In terms of out of the box support, it has actually been great: the package manager provides optimized versions of more libraries than most other package managers seem to provide at all. For example, it includes "rstan", which normally I'd have to get from CRAN within R, and build from source (which is automated).

The package manager doesn't provide VS Code, but it does have Atom, vim, and emacs (and nano) for text editors.

If you mostly use your desktop as a programming and data analysis workstation, I think Clear Linux is great.

[Compartmentalisation]

Clear is pretty cool, but you cannot just install broadcom or nvidia drivers. I saw they have are working on a dkms bundle, so who knows, maybe in a few months?

[OpenSourceAnarchist]

Debian is amazing compared to any other OS. Over 60k binary packages for fast download from servers around the world. Debian does run with various hardware platforms. Debian has the simple-cdd tool to create your own distribution easily. Debian is popular, so software compability is the best. Use the testing or unstable version to get new features and bug fixes fast.

I don't disagree with you that Debian is a great distro, especially Sid if you can get it working and make use of apt-listbugs, but Debian is not known for pushing performance boundaries. The very fact that it supports so many different architectures (and tons of sub-architectures within x86_64 alone) means it is not trying to do what Clear Linux is. Debian has specific goals and features, but maximum performance is not one of them. I think Clear Linux is overengineered if you are aiming to use it as a regular desktop, but it is engineered perfectly as a data science / container / development OS. This is where it shines. Gaming performance will not magically increase because you use Clear over Debian (in fact it may regress or be impacted by incompatibilities), but if you are working with simulations, data analysis, etc., then Clear will magically speed up your workflow.

I personally like Fedora Workstation over Debian but that's just preference at this point.

[arjan_intel]

I've been using Clear Linux as a desktop distro for about a month.
The only real problem I faced is building Julia from source because of an OpenBLAS bug. The bug causes OpenBLAS to think their gfortran is ifort, because it pattern matches the "Intel" in "GNU Fortran (Clear Linux OS for Intel Architecture)". That meant I had to modify Julia's build script to pass F_COMPILER=GFORTRAN to get it and OpenBLAS to build correctly.

Otherwise, no issues.
I use my desktops for programming / statistics / data science. In terms of out of the box support, it has actually been great: the package manager provides optimized versions of more libraries than most other package managers seem to provide at all. For example, it includes "rstan", which normally I'd have to get from CRAN within R, and build from source (which is automated).

The package manager doesn't provide VS Code, but it does have Atom, vim, and emacs (and nano) for text editors.

If you mostly use your desktop as a programming and data analysis workstation, I think Clear Linux is great.

if we're missing R or other stuff please let us know; we've automated a lot of our R stuff so it's easy to add more

[brrrrttttt]

I don't understand why they created Clear Linux instead of just contributing their perf improvements to any other Linux distro.

Most of their contributions would never be merged into a general purpose distro, and they'd face a lot of pushback on most of those that do. So much easier to control your own destiny without the conflicting goals of all the other use-cases.

[JanW]

I have a machine mainly used for scientific data analysis on CPUs (R, python) but I want to also be able to do some deep learning on NVidia GPUs. This won't fly without CUDA and NVidia proprietary drivers. I haven't heard many success stories about installing the NVidia drivers on Clear Linux. I won't compile the kernel myself at each kernel update. I'm supposed to work on science, not computer administration. So I guess until there is proper support for DKMS, I won't bother trying Clear Linux. Unless I missed something?

[FireBurn]

I'm surprised Valve haven't switched SteamOS to Clear yet

[jjmcwill2003]

Am I clear in understanding that there is no capability to install proprietary drivers (NVidia, AMD) at this time, but that they are maybe considering some patches that would make it possible?

That would be a non starter for many professional users looking to maximize performance. (Quadro, Radeon PRO running CAE software)

Michael - have performance comparisons been done running Clear Linux on Intel vs AMD CPUs? Do AMD CPUs take a serious hit? This is an Intel curated distro after all, so that is my suspicion.