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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Thanks (by DaveW on 2017-01-02 00:34:33 GMT from United States)
Seasons Greetings to DW and all the DWW readers. Congratulations on a wonderful 2016, and looking forward to an even better 2017.
2 • Video card poll (by IntelGuy on 2017-01-02 00:43:12 GMT from United States)
If your system uses the Intel integrated graphics processor, do you vote for Intel or not vote? The fact that it is not actually a card is causing me confusion.
3 • Poll Question (by cykodrone on 2017-01-02 01:11:55 GMT from Canada)
I was an Intel guy, until they decided to implement unique IDs in their CPUs for the government. Now I'm strictly AMD but I hate the closed drivers, I find the open drivers are less taxing on the system and work just fine, even better than the closed drivers in some cases. I'm not a gamer, just an average user, I don't have to fiddle with closed drivers.
I do however install proprietary/open CPU and GPU firmware, when it's available. I voted AMD/open drivers.
4 • Virtually nothing is better than SliTaz in the size department! (by RJA on 2017-01-02 02:21:02 GMT from United States)
For a high-functioning system, SliTaz was by far the best distro the last time I checked! In 2010, I had a ball with SliTaz 3.0 and it worked well with Nvidia!
And the version that came out in 2012 looks good as well, just didn't have the time for years to use it, LOL. I regretted that!
5 • Gracias por todo. (by José López on 2017-01-02 02:34:46 GMT from Spain)
Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo 2017. Gracias por vuestra web DISTROWATCH.
6 • graphics (by M.Z. on 2017-01-02 02:56:42 GMT from United States)
@2
I run integrated Intel HD 4000 in my laptop & as it's the best graphics setup I have I voted Intel. It may not be the exact wording of the poll, but to me it's the spirit that counts. Half of my systems run integrated graphics from either Intel or nVidia. Both are decent computers, but the Intel system is far newer & has plenty of power compared to the old nVidia setup on my desktop. I do think there is a bit more to it than that though, because I had some problems with nVidia when PCLinuxOS rolled to some sort of different driver setup due to the way nVidia was supporting their Linux drivers. It was a bit of a headache to restore my system from the command line, so I would recommend anyone trying to stick with rolling distros for the long term try to stick with open drivers. Otherwise the closed drivers seem perfectly acceptable to me, though I would prefer open drivers if all else were equal & I had a choice.
Also I got some free second hand ATI stuff that seems perfectly decent, so I wouldn't knock them either. I just prefer the Intel HD among all the systems I have because it's most powerful.
7 • Nanolinux (by bison on 2017-01-02 04:16:22 GMT from United States)
I managed to get Nanolinux to boot into X, even with my Broadwell graphics. It offered me three resolution options: 1280 x 1024, 1024 x 768, and 800 x 600. The first two resulted in a desktop with scrollbars on my 1920 x 1080 display, which is something I have never seen before. I didn't try 800 x 600.
All the apps open instantaneously, even the web browser (dillo), which is something I could get used to! The whole thing is kind of primitive, but very interesting.
8 • Regarding smallest desktop distributions below 300MB (by Raj on 2017-01-02 04:29:33 GMT from India)
It would be nice if you also add porteus and austrumi Linux to the list, both are minimal and stable OS
9 • Graphics (by Zork on 2017-01-02 04:45:48 GMT from Australia)
Although its been a while since I used a Video Card ( Mostly use the Integrated Graphics nowadays ) have always leant towards NV with Propriety Drivers... Only closed source software I run AFAIK...
Never had a problem with them unlike AMD or Intel Chipset drivers...
Only really an issue if you are looking for Video Editing or Gaming Performance...
10 • whirlwind (by ams on 2017-01-02 05:18:54 GMT from United States)
Thanks, Jesse, for what you described as "whilrwind". Today's article covered a lot of ground & taught me quite a lot.
One of those tiny distros (sliTaz?), had a desktop wallpaper beach scene, bright blue water, palm trees... my jaw dropped when I discovered that it even provided a browser. Led me to wonder if the browser was installed, first run on-demand. Nope, it was somehow pre installed within that teeny iso. Really glad to see that you mentioned the axing of man pages. If those are available as a separate from core package, that's fine. If not available at all, I am sunk.
11 • Happy New Year 2017 (by Woodstock69 on 2017-01-02 06:17:40 GMT from Australia)
Great to hear FreeDOS is not abandoned. I use it quite often for old "lab / workshop" software that just cannot be updated to newer versions anymore. Does the job on the old pc's. For everything else, there's DOSBox.
My condolences to Robert's family. As has been remarked by others, his humour and tech reports will be missed by this distrowatcher.
As for graphics cards, I'd prefer the best card from any manufacturer that actually works with the minimal of fuss and gives the best performance and capabilities, whether that be Intel, NVIDIA or ATI/AMD. At the moment I'm having a battle with the NVIDIA proprietary drivers on my laptop. I had them working, disabled them for one reason or another, upgraded my laptop, decided I wanted the proprietary drivers again and now cannot get them working no matter which driver version I use or how much I purge my system of old configs. Frustrating, but all part of the joys of Linux.
12 • Robert_Storey_and_fig_language_by_Figosdev (by k on 2017-01-02 07:15:34 GMT from United States)
Robert Storey's death really is sad news, his contributions frequently had
powerful tips and truth.
Accordingly, if Robert felt the fig "language would be a useful educational tool",
I am interested in learning more, and read the review above, just that having
never written, compiled nor translated a program, it would be fine to have a
really demonstrative practical example, as Robert always provided.
Perhaps it is not for someone at my tabula rasa level (stage)
13 • :( (by figosdev on 2017-01-02 07:56:47 GMT from United States)
This is terrible news. Robert is one of the last people I had a friendly exchange with last year, he was extremely helpful and encouraging. This is a major loss for DistroWatch and I'm extremely sorry to hear the news.
k: I'm the author of fig. Tell me what you would consider a really demonstrative practical example, and I will do my best.
Regarding the term "translated": technically fig is a "source-to-source" compiler. I use the word "translate" and "compile" interchangeably.
#### arrlen prefixes length to each line of text
#### (i pipe this to sort -n to sort lines of text-- like the output of find-- by length)
#### license: creative commons cc0 1.0 (public domain)
#### http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
# x=$(echo hello | arrlen.fig.py | awk '{print $1}') ; echo $x
# 5
# $ for x in $(echo "hello there how are you?") ; do echo $x ; done | arrlen.fig.py
# 5 hello
# 5 there
# 3 how
# 3 are
# 4 you?
# $
# create a function called delstr that deletes instances of delthis from string fromthis
function delstr fromthis, delthis
f = fromthis ; split f, delthis ; join f, "" ; return f
fig
# loop through whatever is piped (stdin) into arrlen... set each string to variable p
forin p, stdin
## set cr to ascii 13, and set lf to ascii 10
cr = 13 ; chr
lf = 10 ; chr
z = p ; delstr z, cr ; delstr z, lf ## remove newlines from each string
p = z ; len ; prints ; " " ; prints ## copy back to variable p, get length, put on screen
p = z ; print ## copy again, put on screen
next
# stdin contains each line piped to arrlen.
# forin copies each line of stdin to variable p, then runs other code until "next" is encountered.
# then it goes to the next line of stdin and repeats the code in the "forin" loop.
# except for block statements like forin and next, each line starts with a variable and each token can use that variable.
# so this line:
# p = z ; len ; prints ; " " ; prints
# does the following:
# * p = z (set p to contain the contents of variable z)
# * len (change the string value of p to its own numeric length)
# * prints (put the value of p on the screen, then stay on the same line)
# * " " (change the value of p to one space, as a string)
# * prints (put the value of p on the screen, stay on the line)
# the difference between prints and print is that print goes to the next line afterwards
14 • video card (by marame on 2017-01-02 08:04:37 GMT from Finland)
In this computer I am writing now is Intel 82G35 Express video card and LMDE as distro. Works good. I have 20+ computers with different hardware and distros. Mostly onboard Intels and separate Nvidia cards (gf 8000 9000 and newer). Intels work and nouveaus but if I want use Nvidia proprietary drivers I must chose distro for that. That means Ubuntu and Mint and PCLinuxOS.
15 • 8 • small distro(s) (by Somewhat Reticent on 2017-01-02 08:05:57 GMT from United States)
Sta.Li comes to mind … suckless musl, git as package manager …
(statically-linked Linux)
16 • Video card (by argent on 2017-01-02 08:09:13 GMT from United States)
AMD from the beginning with processors, think I owned only one NVIDIA video card before going with ATI, not sure which is superior but the ATI Radeon video card has always done the job I need it to do. Running the ATI Radeon 7770 right now and bought about 3 years ago. Using proprietary drivers with Debian. Just don't have any complaints with AMD/ATI, not a gamer and my PC is just a work horse.
17 • OBRevenge OS (by ZKorvezir on 2017-01-02 08:27:00 GMT from Macedonia)
I think that OBRevenge OS deserve to be added to Distrowatch database,
especially now when Antegros stop with 32 bit support.
So it seems that now OBRevenge is the only light Arch-based distribution
with easy and graphical installer that support 32 bit.
Besides that it is great distribution, light on system resources, making it perfect for lower spec hardware, older machines, or those who simply want to save precious system resources for the work that they are doing.
18 • Slitaz repository (by Dave Postles on 2017-01-02 09:04:10 GMT from United Kingdom)
'SliTaz does feature a graphical package manager, though it looks as though most packages available to the distribution are already installed'
I think that there are more packages, not least LibreOffice (through getLibreOffice). It's just a bit complicated to refresh the list of all available packages, I think, although it is about a year since I was using Slitaz on an old Gateway.
19 • Video cards & Small distros (by Sondar on 2017-01-02 09:37:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
"Unsure" may not be the best alternative to the main options. With my choice of several dozen running machines, with a range of OS/distros/architectures, if one card plays up, a simple swap is often a trivial option. Hence, "Interchangeable" or some such terminology might have been more appropriate? Even boards with embedded video invariably have a card slot option.
Small distros without a more discursive review of the plethora of Puppies and their offspring is an oversight, perhaps meriting an entire review edition? They range from the ancient 50Mb MeanPup .iso through to the slim-s, thin-s, -Slacko -s, X(fce)-s and XSlacko-s, and the Pup-inspired LFS Fatdog-s, many for 32- and/or 64-bit machinery, not to mention newly developing ARM versions by their instigator, Barry Kauler, whose first offering almost a decade and an half ago sized less than 20Mb .iso. All that and a lively, well-informed and congenial Forum.
20 • FreeDOS (by Microlinux on 2017-01-02 10:06:18 GMT from France)
FreeDOS is great if you have to flash a machine's BIOS and you don't have Windows.
http://www.microlinux.fr/microlinux/Linux-HOWTOs/BIOS-Flash-HOWTO.txt
21 • Thin Kodachi sources (by PR on 2017-01-02 11:20:18 GMT from Germany)
Well, Kodachi Linux seems intransparent, as the maintainer does not publish the real source code.
What made me curious is that it shall be based on debian and use debian repositories only, but ships with veracrypt which then would have to be precompiled. But in the (very thin) "sources" found on github there is sign of anything useful information how he did his "enhancements" or how the iso is created.
This projects seems suspicious to me, i would not recommend anyone i know to use it.
22 • Loss of Robert Storey (by Arron on 2017-01-02 12:26:38 GMT from Australia)
So sad, I have been using his gnome4 article to amuse people for years.
Another 2016 loss of a precious talent...
23 • SliTaz (by nolinuxguru on 2017-01-02 12:58:09 GMT from United Kingdom)
@4,18: I installed SliTaz on my spare machine, as part of my quest to find systemd-free distros that I could get to like. The package manager is best tackled with the command line interface: there was little that I could not find. The only thing that stopped me was that it was ONLY 32-bit, with the obvious memory limitations. Pity.
24 • Small linux alternatives (by Arthur on 2017-01-02 13:18:46 GMT from Germany)
@23 try voidlinux. rock solid package manager, friendly helpful community. nosystemd, libressl. Even musl libc if desired by you.
25 • small linux: void linux (by nolinuxguru on 2017-01-02 14:29:28 GMT from United Kingdom)
@24: I am using Void Linux on the spare machine, and have almost succeeded in making it do what I want: sinit init; openbox as de; lxterminal; etc. The hardest bit was filling in the missing xset, xsetroot and xkbset utilities [from Debian sources]. "Small"? Well, it runs with Firefox in 400mb memory, but still uses 2.8gb disk space!
26 • Video Card (by chazdg on 2017-01-02 15:26:25 GMT from United States)
My system always works fine with the Nvidia Proprietary Drivers. Nouveau Open Source Drivers freeze my Desktop constantly no matter what OS I am using.
27 • a_really_demonstrative_application_of_fig_language (by k on 2017-01-02 15:56:47 GMT from Germany)
@13
How about re-compiling libimobiledevice to enable any Linux distro to mount and access at least photos on an iPhone with iOS 10.
Now that would also be proof of the "fig pudding" worthy of Robert Storey.
@22
Robert Storey's essence, simplicity and truth, are selfless and eternal.
28 • Rancher: Install madness (by Jan Lambert on 2017-01-02 15:59:35 GMT from United States)
"The install process downloads a handful of files and takes over the local hard disk. The GRUB boot loader is installed for us too."
Not to pick on Rancher since many distros do the same things, but It would be really nice
if they did not! install a boot loader without permission. Anyone running linux already has a boot loader installed. If the system is GPT then most likely it is already in the ESP partition and trivial to find, and add entries to. GRUB is particularly problematic since it is tied to the distro that installed it if it has been customized.
29 • ATI - Nvidia (by Bill S. on 2017-01-02 16:16:02 GMT from United States)
Imagine my surprise when I discovered my new laptop with Linux would no longer be supported by ATI, I mean wtf is wrong with this company? I wanted Mint 18, Mate but my ATI card prevented it and open source did not work. So I gave my laptop to my wife and bought a new laptop that was Linux compatible with a new Nvidia graphics card. Now I can run Mint Mate 18 and I am happy, but still not liking ATI.
30 • video cards... (by tom joad. on 2017-01-02 16:59:24 GMT from Netherlands)
Of course, Nvidia or an Nvidia knockoff with their driver. Those seem to work the best for me. Next up would be Intel I think. Intel works but just doesn't seem to have the 'Ooomph' of an Nvidia card. I, for one, am happiest when stuff just works however. The rest of the video flavors are also rans. ATI is the least disirable for use in Linux.
I avoid ATI and Broadcom.
31 • Tiny Core (by David on 2017-01-02 17:30:37 GMT from United Kingdom)
It's worth warning that Tiny Core is only tiny so long as you don't want any applications; to put it another way, it's only tiny on the download, not on the computer. Because it runs in RAM, even loading an application uses memory, let along running it. The last time I tested it, it needed 60MB more than AntiX to run Midori.
32 • pudding? (by figosdev on 2017-01-02 18:39:30 GMT from United States)
@27 i would need to know more about compiling libimobiledevice, and all in all it would just calls to the shell (os.system, not even subprocess) anyway.
for what its worth, mkfigos is a fig program that downloads puppy linux and refracta, mixes them into a single bootable iso, adds petget package capability TO refracta, and updates a lot of puppy (tahr) binaries with ones FROM refracta. then it makes the iso dd'able to usb.
there are definitely better remaster scripts out there, but this one is meant to be fully automated. (once youve got a couple folders made.) start it going and come back 15 minutes later-- when the squash compression is ready. theres a fastcomp option for less/faster compression when youre making changes.
originally it was an experiment to see if puppy tahr could be updated with an automated script. now its the distro i use: fig os. (a version of refracta that still can install pet packages.) mkfigos 2.4-- the latest version-- is available at the unofficialdistros link in the article.
33 • Dark Horse EDE (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2017-01-03 01:24:31 GMT from United States)
Ah, small, finally a rundown.
Not enough distros know EDE desktop, based on FLTK instead of Qt or GTK. For small, look into EDE.
http://equinox-project.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0PKPgrw4ow
Up-and-coming Lumina is also worth a peek.
https://lumina-desktop.org
@25 Because cache
ls -1 /var/cache/xbps | wc -l
du -hc /var/cache/xbps
To solve you may either go nuclear,
rm -f /var/cache/xbps/*
or fire standard artillery,
xbps-remove --clean-cache
34 • PS @25 Void Swallows Debian (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2017-01-03 01:30:56 GMT from United States)
No need for Debian sources. Here are the Void packages you want.
xbps-query -Rs xset
35 • poll question, open nvidia, oh, and a mini distro (by jonathon on 2017-01-03 06:57:13 GMT from Australia)
Once you've plugged into DVI there's no going back to VGA, all that auto adjusting fuzziness..!
I initially bought a very cheap fanless AMD card, right before I discovered Linux, that combined with connecting only via 3G meant I had to a lot of learning to do about applying non-free drivers and (thankfully) Sakis3g.
Although running non-free anything still bugged me and GNU's (short) list remained a mystery (unless I went back to a VGA connection)
http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html
Long story short, I deliberately bought a Nvidia GPU and Atheros chipped WIFI card, so I don't have to tick the non-free box, at least not everytime
And Free and Open Source distros are proper resolution first boot
Oh and Minimal Linux Live, is a good learning opportunity too
http://minimal.linux-bg.org/
36 • void xset[root] (by nolinuxguru on 2017-01-03 08:43:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
@34 it must have late when I tried/failed to find xset[root] on void, thanks. Still, the effort will not be lost next time I move to a hostile distro.
@33 void /var/cache is only 168mb, /usr 1.8gb, , ~ 450mb [config junk].
37 • Death of PPC (32bit) (by Sam on 2017-01-03 13:54:50 GMT from United States)
With Debian and derivative distros planning to soon drop support for 32bit PPC architecture, I wonder what this will do for PowerPC Macbook prices on eBay (I'm still amazed at what people are asking for a 10-year-old+ G4, and, apparently, what people are paying for them).
38 • This week's news (by Barnabyh on 2017-01-03 15:34:00 GMT from United Kingdom)
Really sorry to hear about Robert, my condolences to his family. Over the years he wrote some memorable reviews. The Gnome 4 April Fools was probably one of the funniest and most fitting pieces ever, considering the stage Gnome was at then.
39 • Nvidia card (by silent on 2017-01-03 18:06:44 GMT from Hungary)
My experience with an entry level Nvidia GT710 videocard: Works well also with FreeBSD with the nvidia-modeset module. For Linux the nvidia driver provides much better 3D acceleration (three times faster) than nouveau. Indeed, the closed driver "implements kernel mode-setting, but it does not use the built-in kernel implementation and it lacks an fbdev driver for the high-resolution console" (Arch wiki). On the other hand, KMS is enabled automatically with nouveau and it has fbdev support.
40 • Add Subtract Multiply Divide, Decide (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2017-01-04 01:01:30 GMT from United States)
@36 If you want minimalism use Alpine instead of Void. They come from different design points. Alpine: starts barebones, add pkgs to get desktop workability. Void: installs desktop workable, subtract packages to get barebones. Alpine is OpenRC and Void is runit. Void is beter at updating packages with more quantity. Alpine has a security-patched kernel, although it's unclear how much longer.
41 • AMD, Intel or NVIDIA? (by Bbig on 2017-01-04 01:30:35 GMT from Germany)
Just to be clear: nVidia has no open source drivers whatsoever.
The nouveau-drivers are reverse engineered with little to no help from nVidia.
So your choices if you want libre is only AMD or Intel.
And honestly, Jesse, when you say "However, I do not think there has been a great deal of change in the past few years.", i think, you did not follow AMDs development at all. As a pointer: look at phoronix.com
Happy & healthy New Year everyone!
42 • Video card (by argent on 2017-01-04 02:29:42 GMT from United States)
@41
Went to Linux about 5 years ago, and found no problem even then with my all AMD computer, on the other hand I introduced a friend to Debian and he was quite displeased with the graphics he was getting with a NVIDIA card, had a spare AMD graphics card and Xorg was the answer.
Now days use the proprietary drivers for AMD, and actually easier to set up now with little difficulty.
Not a gamer so wouldn't know about that aspects, but for my work horse PC and occasional use of GIMP and Inkscape. Won't complain about AMD and their support for Linux, think they appreciate the folks who use their products and providing drivers is just good business, shame NVIDIA can't see that.
43 • VoidLinux disc space (by paoloschi on 2017-01-04 09:56:23 GMT from Italy)
@40 >Void: installs desktop workable, subtract packages to get barebones.
I can believe this is true if using the current Void installer.
I personally have always installed Void through the package 'base-voidstrap'
This involves the download of ~30MB of basic packages + the kernel + grub and I have a bootable base on which subsequently to build the system I need..
Doing so takes more time and may not be affordable for every beginner,
I just want to point out that the statement "Void Installation == lots of gigabytes wasted" it is not a correct information to be given!....
44 • Graphics cards (by Barnabyh on 2017-01-04 11:22:08 GMT from United Kingdom)
All AMD and intel here. I've got several old AMD cards lying around like an All-in-Wonder 128/32MB which are being reused until the day they give up. The radeonhd driver always supported them perfectly. The proprietary driver was quite easy to set up. I've done it many times but no need for it any more. One intel onboard graphics in the workhorse laptop. Not buying Nvidia if for a different reason. Even the 3dfx Voodoo 3000 still plays old games like Rune well with the free driver and that's the most graphically demanding things I do.
45 • voidstrap? (by nolinuxguru on 2017-01-04 11:50:53 GMT from United Kingdom)
@43 I was curious about your mention of the voidstrap package: how do you use this to install Void Linux, given that packages are only accessible AFTER installation. I looked at void-installer, but could not see a way to choose a different path from "_syspkg". voidstrap looks like it may be similar to debootstrap in debian/devuan.
46 • base-voidstrap (by paoloschi on 2017-01-04 16:32:12 GMT from Italy)
@45, indicatively:
start your PC from any VoidLinux LiveCD and instead of run the installer, mount the partition already formatted you will be installing the system, for example
target=/mnt/install
mkdir $target
mount /dev/sdXN $target
then prepare and run the chroot:
mkdir -m 0755 ${target}/dev
mkdir -m 0555 ${target}/{proc,sys}
mount --rbind /dev ${target}/dev
mount --rbind /proc ${target}/proc
mount --rbind /sys ${target}/sys
chroot $target /bin/bash
. /etc/profile
you can install a system based on GLIBC or MUSL library! ..x86_64 example:
GLIBC:
export XBPS_ARCH=x86_64 (required if you install from a MUSL live)
mirror=https://repo.voidlinux.eu/current
MUSL:
export XBPS_ARCH=x86_64-musl (required if you install from a GLIBC live)
mirror=https://repo.voidlinux.eu/current/musl
I usually define a variable where in addition to 'basic-voidstrap' I add some other package..
pkgs="base-voidstrap usbutils wget .."
then the command
xbps-install -MiS -R "$mirror" -r "$target" $pkgs
puts all the basic packages, creating on $target all system directories..
for configurations and the rest: https://wiki.voidlinux.eu/Main_Page
47 • Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2017-01-05 02:50:31 GMT from United States)
@43 It can be done, as with debootstrap for Debian and equivalents for other distros. My underlying point was that Void focuses on desktops but Alpine on minimalism (busybox, docker, embedded). It's not so much about installation as usage scenario.
In Alpine it's actually tricky to maintain a normal desktop and they admit as much. For desktops use Void. If you want a completely barebones OS for some reason, then it's easier with Alpine. In some of these usage scenarios there are ready-made images to download. Docker Inc hired the lead dev because Alpine got so popular in those circles for its minimalism, specifically disk space, which was the OP's interest.
Both are great distros!
48 • voidstrap (by nolinuxguru on 2017-01-05 09:40:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
@46 Thanks for your detailed instructions, which I will try at the weekend. If readers want a simpler approach, it looks like they can edit a copy of the void-installer script, and replace the line starting
xbps-install -r $TARGETDIR -SyU ${_syspkg} ${_grub} 2>&1 | \
with
xbps-install -r $TARGETDIR -SyU "base-voidstrap .." ${_grub} 2>&1 | \
I still can't find the place where I can specify MUSL over GLIBC, but I just try harder!
49 • Robert Storey (by Silentsam on 2017-01-05 16:57:34 GMT from Canada)
Robert Storey will be missed... so sad. Rest In Peace Robert.
50 • good convo here this week! (by jim on 2017-01-06 06:49:58 GMT from United States)
just a quick thanks for the void n alpine pointers. very helpful. removes some of my worry about trying to install
51 • glmark2 and open drivers (by cykodrone on 2017-01-07 08:24:16 GMT from Canada)
Ran glmark2 in Devuan vs PCLinuxOS, both with open drivers and all available firmware installed.
Devuan (stock kernel 3.16.~) scored around 1850, PCLinuxOS (LTS kernel 4.4.40) scored around 2350.
If you're going to run it, run it from a terminal, when the test window is done, the terminal window stays open displaying the final score.
I had to locally compile it for Devuan (search glmark2 in Debian Jessie for instructions) and install it from a Fedora 22 rpm in PCLinuxOS, sounds like a lot of hassle, but it worked and it was fun.
AMD FX-8350/Radeon R7 250
52 • BlankOn and their custom GNOME Shell (by Barnabyh on 2017-01-07 12:16:47 GMT from United Kingdom)
BlankOn's GNOME implementation has always reminded me of early GNOME 3 sketch-ups, with the black sidebar on the left displaying various information. This was what GNOME 3 was originally supposed to look like in mock-ups or early development screenshots, whatever it was. https://goo.gl/bhO1Uf
Seems the BlankOn team were a fan of that design and implemented it when the base turned out slightly different with a dock instead. Perhaps to make it more recognizable for Unity and Xfce users?
53 • nVidia/nouveau, etc (by Jordan on 2017-01-07 14:27:08 GMT from United States)
I admit to steering clear of nVidia, just because of the unreliability I noticed early on and saw expressed here and there about it as time went by. But those devs are at work on it all the time, as to open source drivers for that graphics unit.
Interesting take:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2911459/why-nvidia-graphics-cards-are-the-worst-for-open-source-but-the-best-for-linux-gaming.html
But intel still works best for me.
54 • Graphics Cards (by Robert on 2017-01-08 06:54:46 GMT from United States)
I chose Unsure, though I mean that more as "Other" since nothing else is really accurate.
Currently this machine is using Intel graphics on open drivers, and has an Nvidia card that's being passed through to a VM. I also have 2 laptops in the household, one with Nvidia graphics on closed drivers, and one with AMD graphics and open drivers.
In the past I've used Nvidia and AMD cards, with both open and closed drivers. If you need graphics performance on Linux then Nvidia/closed is IMO the best combination, followed by AMD/open. The other configurations always seem to have some issue or another, whether that's crashing drivers, corrupted displays, or just plain not working.
55 • nVidia/Nouveau (by AliasMarlowe on 2017-01-08 13:48:34 GMT from Finland)
Here's the output from glmark2 on an old Dell Precision M4400 running Xubuntu 16.04.1. It has a WUXGA (1920x1200) display and Core2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz. I was doing other things - but not so much - at the same time.
=======================================================
glmark2 2014.03+git20150611.fa71af2d
=======================================================
OpenGL Information
GL_VENDOR: nouveau
GL_RENDERER: Gallium 0.4 on NV96
GL_VERSION: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0
=======================================================
[build] use-vbo=false: FPS: 427 FrameTime: 2.342 ms
[build] use-vbo=true: FPS: 481 FrameTime: 2.079 ms
[texture] texture-filter=nearest: FPS: 449 FrameTime: 2.227 ms
[texture] texture-filter=linear: FPS: 445 FrameTime: 2.247 ms
[texture] texture-filter=mipmap: FPS: 458 FrameTime: 2.183 ms
[shading] shading=gouraud: FPS: 434 FrameTime: 2.304 ms
[shading] shading=blinn-phong-inf: FPS: 434 FrameTime: 2.304 ms
[shading] shading=phong: FPS: 382 FrameTime: 2.618 ms
[shading] shading=cel: FPS: 360 FrameTime: 2.778 ms
[bump] bump-render=high-poly: FPS: 328 FrameTime: 3.049 ms
[bump] bump-render=normals: FPS: 479 FrameTime: 2.088 ms
[bump] bump-render=height: FPS: 463 FrameTime: 2.160 ms
[effect2d] kernel=0,1,0;1,-4,1;0,1,0;: FPS: 308 FrameTime: 3.247 ms
[effect2d] kernel=1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;: FPS: 124 FrameTime: 8.065 ms
[pulsar] light=false:quads=5:texture=false: FPS: 403 FrameTime: 2.481 ms
[desktop] blur-radius=5:effect=blur:passes=1:separable=true:windows=4: FPS: 136 FrameTime: 7.353 ms
[desktop] effect=shadow:windows=4: FPS: 263 FrameTime: 3.802 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 329 FrameTime: 3.040 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=subdata: FPS: 303 FrameTime: 3.300 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=true:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 334 FrameTime: 2.994 ms
[ideas] speed=duration: FPS: 407 FrameTime: 2.457 ms
[jellyfish] : FPS: 296 FrameTime: 3.378 ms
[terrain] : FPS: 31 FrameTime: 32.258 ms
[shadow] : FPS: 340 FrameTime: 2.941 ms
[refract] : FPS: 78 FrameTime: 12.821 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 451 FrameTime: 2.217 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 349 FrameTime: 2.865 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 449 FrameTime: 2.227 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=low:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 449 FrameTime: 2.227 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=medium:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 380 FrameTime: 2.632 ms
[loop] fragment-loop=false:fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 450 FrameTime: 2.222 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=false:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 451 FrameTime: 2.217 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=true:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 401 FrameTime: 2.494 ms
=======================================================
glmark2 Score: 359
=======================================================
Number of Comments: 55
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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