Phoronix.com Turns 19 Years Old For Covering Linux Hardware, Open-Source News

Today marks nineteen years since I started Phoronix.com for covering the Linux hardware space. It's been a wild ride from the days of 56K modems, graphics driver pains, and having to use NDISWrapper for WiFi device driver support on Linux, among many other Linux hardware pains in the early days. These days the open-source GPU driver scene is far better off, Linux hardware support overall is great, companies continue investing massively into Linux/open-source thanks to the success in the server space over the past two decades, and the Steam Deck has proven to be one of the most interesting Linux-powered consumer devices in recent years.

Linux hardware support is a heck of a lot better off these days than when starting Phoronix.com nineteen years ago. It's no longer so much a matter of if a device works on Linux, but how fast it is and what feature(s) may or may not be initially supported. For brand new hardware on Linux it can also be a matter of what kernel version may be needed, but even in the AMD and Intel space for GPUs that is improving to provide better out-of-the-box support at launch. Linux on server hardware is pretty much a given these days and in the past 19 years has seen massive optimizations and improvements from the likes of Intel, IBM / Red Hat, Google, Meta, and other companies on enhancing the upstream Linux kernel. Similarly, Linux performance continues to improve with time and near-consistently moving in the right direction. Hell it's been entertaining and unimaginable compared to 19 years ago how much Microsoft engineers are contributing to Linux.

Just some of the interesting Phoronix pictures from over the years...

Valve's Steam Deck has shown great success for a Linux gaming handheld while we've also seen Linux running on many consumer devices these days albeit not necessarily evident to the end-user. Linux dominating on the desktop though remains elusive with most metrics and geographies showing Linux desktop use in single digit percentages.

While Linux hardware support and the overall ecosystem has improved dramatically over the past 19 years, the area where things have unfortunately went in a deep decline has been the state of the web ad industry... Each passing year operations only become more difficult in relying on pay-per-impression advertising and catering primarily to the Linux desktop space that is a rather tough niche for attracting relevant advertisers at competitive rates. Thus most of the time relying on common ad networks and the ever-slimming ad rates challenged by ad buyers often focusing on Facebook and YouTube content. As a result, for a number of years now it's just been a "one man band" at Phoronix for producing all the original content day-in and day-out.

If you have enjoyed Phoronix content over the past 19 years, besides viewing the site without an ad-blocker, the best way you can help out is joining Phoronix Premium. For the Phoronix 19th birthday week there is a special offer of Phoronix Premium for $19 a year or $100 for a lifetime subscription. Phoronix Premium gets you ad-free access to the site, multi-page articles on a single page, native dark mode support, and other benefits all while helping to allow Phoronix.com operations to continue in this difficult climate. Tips via PayPal or Stripe are always available and appreciated.

Thanks for your support over the past 19 years. In the forums share what you hope to see out of the Linux / open-source driver landscape over the next year.