New Phoronix Site Launches

[Michael]

It's finally here!

Should be updated @ http://www.phoronix.com/

Announcement: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=9532

Announcement #2: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=9533

Feel free to discuss what you like and you don't like in this thread. We will be making some tweaks in the coming days and we highly value your feedback.

[byteframe]

This whole, " & solaris" thing is garbage, since when should phoronix care about fucking solaris?

[ltmon]

This whole, " & solaris" thing is garbage, since when should phoronix care about fucking solaris?

Since Michael decided he wanted too... seriously, what does Phoronix owe you?

Congrats on the new updates, and I'll be reading the Solaris stories even if byteframe won't :)

[byteframe]

The new design is crap and supports too much adds, wheres navigation or shoutbox on the right? google ads is way to pandering here. and this used to be a cool linux gaming turbo nvidia site, now its got + SOLARIS added to it, just seems like this is all just some guys blog in an attic with a half dozen machines doing cool GNU/LINUX shit, and now that he wants to branch out of timedemos to play with nix. I THINK this guys time could be spent doing something raelly cool like modding a dreamcast to run openbsd, or doing more tutorials, in fact, I nominate myself for Head of Propaganda to further the cause of the GNU platform.

Seriously, fix this fast.

[byteframe]

...and who the duece runs solaris?

[Michael]

The new design is crap and supports too much adds, wheres navigation or shoutbox on the right? google ads is way to pandering here. and this used to be a cool linux gaming turbo nvidia site, now its got + SOLARIS added to it, just seems like this is all just some guys blog in an attic with a half dozen machines doing cool GNU/LINUX shit, and now that he wants to branch out of timedemos to play with nix. I THINK this guys time could be spent doing something raelly cool like modding a dreamcast to run openbsd, or doing more tutorials, in fact, I nominate myself for Head of Propaganda to further the cause of the GNU platform.

Seriously, fix this fast.

byteframe,

Regardless of whether it is positive or negative, we appreciate all feedback.

While the ad locations have changed, we actually haven't increased the number of ads on Phoronix. In fact, on some pages it's less.

In regards to Solaris, it's a growing market. At this point we are focusing largely upon Solaris news and compatibility in articles. Producing Solaris news takes minimal time and running additional OS tests has been one of the items requested by a number of readers. You shouldn't need to worry about the number of Linux articles going down or the quality of the articles going down as a result of Solaris.

If you have any other comments as to the new design, they would be welcome.

[ltmon]

I might add some extra feedback:

- Black on white, for me, is much better than the inverse.
- Possibly introduce a third colour to better draw out headings. I'm particularly concerned about the left hand side. I'd suggest green, but that feels very "slashdot". I notice the background colour, but it's too close to black to stand out at all.
- The main nav bar could be better defined as navigation and separated from the rest of the content/header. Possibly highlight the current section as well.
- The nav bar above the header - what is it doing? Is it searching articles or news or everything. Could be clearer what it is.
- Making sure all margins are the same gives a sleeker look. I'm talking the right margin of the main content (no margin here) and the two navigation bars look a bit different also.

Ok, I just refreshed and got a few changes :) Maybe I'll check back later....

Cheers,

L.

[Michael]

I might add some extra feedback:

- Black on white, for me, is much better than the inverse.
- Possibly introduce a third colour to better draw out headings. I'm particularly concerned about the left hand side. I'd suggest green, but that feels very "slashdot". I notice the background colour, but it's too close to black to stand out at all.
- The main nav bar could be better defined as navigation and separated from the rest of the content/header. Possibly highlight the current section as well.
- The nav bar above the header - what is it doing? Is it searching articles or news or everything. Could be clearer what it is.
- Making sure all margins are the same gives a sleeker look. I'm talking the right margin of the main content (no margin here) and the two navigation bars look a bit different also.

Ok, I just refreshed and got a few changes :) Maybe I'll check back later....

Cheers,

L.

Sounds like you may be running into some CSS refresh problems. Can you try back tomorrow and see if all of your points are still effected on your system?

[David]

The new design is crap and supports too much adds, wheres navigation or shoutbox on the right? google ads is way to pandering here. and this used to be a cool linux gaming turbo nvidia site, now its got + SOLARIS added to it, just seems like this is all just some guys blog in an attic with a half dozen machines doing cool GNU/LINUX shit, and now that he wants to branch out of timedemos to play with nix. I THINK this guys time could be spent doing something raelly cool like modding a dreamcast to run openbsd, or doing more tutorials, in fact, I nominate myself for Head of Propaganda to further the cause of the GNU platform.

Seriously, fix this fast.

I'll have to agree with the google ads part. I think it does overtake the site. Also I don't believe it should take such an important spot on the top of the left nav bar. (In fact that left nav space is just downright massive.) It could be used for a flyout navigation instead or something useful.

And I think the left nav is too wide and doesn't have much navigation. You guys have any thoughts on that?

[ProTech]

Please make it 1024x768 friendly. I have to scroll all the time :(

The design looks crowded. It's hard to find any information on it. Sometimes less is more.

[Moustacha]

the TOC and banner are in colour, but the dynamic stuff (news articles etc) all have a white background?

[ivanovic]

Please make it 1024x768 friendly. I have to scroll all the time :(

The design looks crowded. It's hard to find any information on it. Sometimes less is more.

Yeah, I have the same problem. Would it not be possible to either make the left border a little smaller (It looks rather big over here) or to let the text-part adjust it's size automatically? The fixed width IMO is not this good if it does not work Out of the Box on at least a width of 1024. Personally I would prefer to have the menu on the left smaller. It should not be such a big problem if a little of the topics titles for the news/articles/whatever are lost. Currently I am running my browser (Firefox) in windowed mode with a width of ~1000px. So in general I would prefer the site to be perfectly cieable with an "in-windows-size" of 950px (you always have to substract borders and all the stuff...). The best thing might even be some variable size. The "linklist" on the left size gets a fixed size, the rest gets "what is available". The banner on top is stratched to match the width. That something like this can work nicely you can see at the wesnoth homepage (http://www.wesnoth.org/).

A different thing:
Since you did add Links to the single subforums, why is there non left to the main forum? Not everything does fit into the subforums. Would it be possible to make the topic be a Link to the forum itself?

EDIT: Hmmm, I did not notice there was the "normal" link in the top-row. I still would welcome to have the topics each be a link, too.

[yoshi314]

i think we need to start some serious stylish (ff extension) hacking to alter the site :D

[Michael]

Thanks for all the feedback. David has made a list of the various items and we have discussed them so there should be some changes within a few hours.

[David]

I have a good question for everyone. Does anyone actually like the stuff in the left nav? (Recent Articles, Recent Linux News, Recent Solaris News etc etc). Which ones could we do without?

[ltmon]

I have a good question for everyone. Does anyone actually like the stuff in the left nav? (Recent Articles, Recent Linux News, Recent Solaris News etc etc). Which ones could we do without?

I like the concept, but there's just so much content that it clutters the look of the site to my eye, especially since they show on every page. That left hand position is valuable real-estate for simpler high level nav items.

L

[ivanovic]

I have a good question for everyone. Does anyone actually like the stuff in the left nav? (Recent Articles, Recent Linux News, Recent Solaris News etc etc). Which ones could we do without?

In general I like having such a bar. Here is a short list of topics I really would like to see in there:
Recent Articles
Recent Linux News
Featured Articles
Phoronix Forums
Topics from the Blog

Stuff I don't think is needed there:
Reviews From Around The Web

The part about Solaris: It is okay though not a must have for me. The screenshots: No idea if they do need an entry in there though it can also be nice to have.

So my vote: Yes, I like to have such a bar, though I would welcome to have it by far more "slim". About 60% of the current size would IMO be better, even if some "topics" would not be completely shown but aborted by '...'.

[ivanovic]

Since it looks like the forums does not want to accept my edit, here my changes in a new reply:
There was just an update to decrease the width of the left bar, it is a lot better now. Reducing it a little bit further might be good, though it can stay this way, too. I would welcome having topics up to the size of the one entitled "An Outcry For Improved ATI Linux Drivers" completely shown and afterwards stuff cut off. That is just a little less than what currently is used, maybe 20 to 30px.
Still the page itself is too wide due to the image http://www.phoronix.com/phxcms-css/header.jpg having a width of 1080px. It might be better to reduce the horizontal size of the banner a little to maybe 1000px. I did create a screenshot of the current layout at my sys (link (http://img480.imageshack.us/my.php?image=phoronix1lj0.jpg)), as you see, the banner gets cut of right after the "contact" link. That is where I would prefer having the banner itself cut, too. If it had a size of 1000px horizontally users with 1024x768 would have no probs with the page as long as they are using fullscreen.
Regarding the number of links in each category: I would vote for a little more than just 4. Maybe 6?

Edit: This command should do the resize without any probs if you got imagemagick available: 'convert -resize 1000x90 header.jpg header_new.jpg' The vertical value (currently 90px) will be adjusted as needed to keep the aspect ratio. Eg it will be scaled to 83px when the horizontal value is 1000px.

[Michael]

Ch-Ch-Changes. To sum them up:

- The "bar" is much slimmer now and with that the Google Ad there has decreased in size. The bar has also moved down a bit so running along the top now are four (instead of three) latest articles with quotes.

- Reviews From Around The Web is only displayed in the bar when viewing the home page.

- Recent Solaris News will NOT be displayed when viewing an article or review. On other pages it will be in the bar but not when viewing an actual article.

- Editor's Blog has been removed from the bar to save room.

- The middle horizontal navigation underneath the header has been reordered.

I think that about sums up the major changes -- there were a few other small tweaks. We will still be making more changes so if there is anything else you would like to see that hasn't been mentioned, be sure to share it with us. Thanks.

[ivanovic]

- The middle horizontal navigation underneath the header has been reordered.
Hmmm, I would welcome to see the link to the redblog in the topbar removed in favor for a link to the Editor's Blog. And IMO it is sad to loose the Editor's Blog in the linklist on the left side.
Overall: Looks okay so far (beside the top banner width ;) ).

[Michael]

Hmmm, I would welcome to see the link to the redblog in the topbar removed in favor for a link to the Editor's Blog. And IMO it is sad to loose the Editor's Blog in the linklist on the left side.
Overall: Looks okay so far (beside the top banner width ;) ).

Editor's Blog will return shortly.

Discussing the width of the site right now with stakeholders.

David is also working on some AJAX to clear up the left hand side possibly.

[Michael]

The site is now a fixed width of 1060px (as opposed to 1080px). It will help a bit for 1024 users. Right now we can't really go much smaller than that due to the horizontal running areas (and most users being greater than 1024).

[JonC]

The site is now a fixed width of 1060px (as opposed to 1080px). It will help a bit for 1024 users. Right now we can't really go much smaller than that due to the horizontal running areas (and most users being greater than 1024).

Some of us aren't as well endowed as you...

It isn't a big reduction from 1060 to 1024, less than 3%.

Pretty please?

[byteframe]

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/3606/phoronixcapwv2.png
the text in the items on the left side need to be "..." after a certain ammount maybe?

That is a shot of a 1600x1200 screen running the new site in epiphany 2.16.3. The size of the window is the same as I always keep it, so I browse all sites in that window, and I havent had a problem till I came upon this new site, Althought granted im sure thats just because its over _1000_ pixels wide.

Also, lets tux up that logo. In fact, make everything more badass like the late linux-militia.net. If the site was smaller, say 666 pixels wide, you could put some cool random blood spotches and spend cartridges on either side of the centered page.

The google ads on the left REALLY REALLY REALLY need to go below the navigation on the left. having that right in between the boxes below and above it distrupts stuff.

But yeah I mean, I dont know if that stuff is easy, and considering that the problem of getting rid of the solaris crap is pretty easy, we should all concentrate on that first.

[Michael]

Some of us aren't as well endowed as you...

It isn't a big reduction from 1060 to 1024, less than 3%.

Pretty please?

I'll see about making it 1020px.

[Michael]

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/3606/phoronixcapwv2.png
the text in the items on the left side need to be "..." after a certain ammount maybe?

That is a shot of a 1600x1200 screen running the new site in epiphany 2.16.3. The size of the window is the same as I always keep it, so I browse all sites in that window, and I havent had a problem till I came upon this new site, Althought granted im sure thats just because its over _1000_ pixels wide.

Also, lets tux up that logo. In fact, make everything more badass like the late linux-militia.net. If the site was smaller, say 666 pixels wide, you could put some cool random blood spotches and spend cartridges on either side of the centered page.

The google ads on the left REALLY REALLY REALLY need to go below the navigation on the left. having that right in between the boxes below and above it distrupts stuff.

But yeah I mean, I dont know if that stuff is easy, and considering that the problem of getting rid of the solaris crap is pretty easy, we should all concentrate on that first.

For the text in the box, it's automatically calculated how much text to display. However, I see that you must be using a different font in Epiphany. I'll see about improving the algorithm for how the box is displayed.

You sure seem to be Anti-Solaris... Why is that?

[yatt]

While the ad locations have changed, we actually haven't increased the number of ads on Phoronix. In fact, on some pages it's less.
The placement is better too. I use adblock in FF, so before there would just be random gaps at the beginning of the article, now it is in the top corner and just makes it look like you want the article title to standout a bit.

[ivanovic]

I'll see about making it 1020px.
Thank you for changing it. Now browsing the site is really okay again.

[Michael]

No problem. When enough people request something, it's done. It's a democratic society here at Phoronix.

The "quote boxes" at the top of Phoronix should also be fixed to dynamic heights.

[Thund]

Michael, I don't know why *he* is anti-solaris, but Sun has been anti-Linux for so long I don't see a need to support them. Solaris is inferior to the other commercial unix offerings (HPUX and AIX) in terms of features, security, and performance (see the Sun license with regard to benchmark publishing). I mean, the SPARC architecture is a joke; most current IBM and HP marketing material ignores SPARC since it's a non-issue when comparing vs Power or IA64.

You'd be better off (in my humble opinion) to focus on Plan9 and Linux if you must be a dual OS shop. Maybe even Hurd. But not OpenSolaris.

A decent portion of Linux folks haven't forgot the Sun FUD machine; they are marginally better than SCO.

But, if you must do OpenSolaris, go with Belenix. Its at least halfway decent IMO.


And, I like the new site...it works well on IceWeasel @ 1920x1200; loads fast, nice graphics, etc....

[DarkFoss]

I think the new site looks great .

[byteframe]

For the text in the box, it's automatically calculated how much text to display. However, I see that you must be using a different font in Epiphany. I'll see about improving the algorithm for how the box is displayed.

You sure seem to be Anti-Solaris... Why is that?

Well, Phoronix really still is primarily a Linux gaming, and related hardware (GPU) site. Playing around with other nixes is great, and Phoronix. should encourage it with BSD and others, but wanting more cool stuff should'nt change the 'Mission Statement' of Phoronix. Phoronix. with its previous site darker design seemed really underground and badass, and totally catered to the hardware smart enthusiast Linux crowd. I left 'gaming' out of that description, as I'd hate to really say this site should be, or was/is ALL about gaming, but it still is geared towards a gaming mindset, and all the hardware tests which usually evaluate a piece of gaming hardware rely on gaming benchmarks
more than most others sites, which IS cool...

It would really suck to see this Phoronix branch out into some crazy ass thing that clones all the news from other sites about subjects more broad, and increasingly unrelated to the oringinal Phoronix.

Linux-milita.net, I thought was hot shit. But it's dead. Linux-gamers.net gets updated once every week by some german guy, and tuxgames focuses on anything that even REMOTELY resembles a game.

With all the reduced amount of space for the actual CONTENT of this site, I fear we may be looking on a Toms Hardware that uses Linux to bench.

Slim the site down, whats the point of having the 'latest articles' thing on the left, when they're right in the middle of the site? If you removed that, you'll still have the left side bar, (which could still use trimming) but the fact that the news stories might usually take up more text, this would be a good starter imporvment. You SHOULD have left navigation, and maybe some stuff on the right as well, but if your just coping the news stories and other stuff on the left, it would think it would be hard to fill up both sides with navigation or other controls.

SO HOWS ABOUT ALL THE _ADS_ GO ON THE RIGHT?

[Michael]

Well, Phoronix really still is primarily a Linux gaming, and related hardware (GPU) site. Playing around with other nixes is great, and Phoronix. should encourage it with BSD and others, but wanting more cool stuff should'nt change the 'Mission Statement' of Phoronix. Phoronix. with its previous site darker design seemed really underground and badass, and totally catered to the hardware smart enthusiast Linux crowd. I left 'gaming' out of that description, as I'd hate to really say this site should be, or was/is ALL about gaming, but it still is geared towards a gaming mindset, and all the hardware tests which usually evaluate a piece of gaming hardware rely on gaming benchmarks
more than most others sites, which IS cool...

It would really suck to see this Phoronix branch out into some crazy ass thing that clones all the news from other sites about subjects more broad, and increasingly unrelated to the oringinal Phoronix.

Linux-milita.net, I thought was hot shit. But it's dead. Linux-gamers.net gets updated once every week by some german guy, and tuxgames focuses on anything that even REMOTELY resembles a game.

With all the reduced amount of space for the actual CONTENT of this site, I fear we may be looking on a Toms Hardware that uses Linux to bench.

Slim the site down, whats the point of having the 'latest articles' thing on the left, when they're right in the middle of the site? If you removed that, you'll still have the left side bar, (which could still use trimming) but the fact that the news stories might usually take up more text, this would be a good starter imporvment. You SHOULD have left navigation, and maybe some stuff on the right as well, but if your just coping the news stories and other stuff on the left, it would think it would be hard to fill up both sides with navigation or other controls.

SO HOWS ABOUT ALL THE _ADS_ GO ON THE RIGHT?

byteframe,

I can assure you that we will not be forgetting our roots in Linux and gaming with our adoption of Solaris. We are simply trying to inform alternative OS users in regards to performance and compatibility whether it be Linux, Solaris, and BSD (shortly). We will continue to focus and improve upon what you refer to as our bad-ass content and delivering much more.

In regards to the advertisements, we attempt to make them as non-obtrusive and integrated as possible. I would love to make Phoronix ad-free, however, that is simply not possible as we likely wouldn't be able to generate enough off donations and I would be against requiring any subscriptions for access or anything of that nature.

Phoronix incurs expense on some hardware, domains, hosting, and related expenses. We are also preparing for further expansions -- such as additional staff and without giving too much away, we are looking at expanding into other forms of Internet media (anybody say Linux hardware video podcasts?). However, once I am done with some of my other ventures I am involved with, I will hopefully be able to reduce the ads on Phoronix.

We still focus all of our efforts on creating original content and not linking to other site for news or Linux happenings as we do it ourselves. You have my assurance that Phoronix will remain the most kick ass source for Linux hardware reviews and articles targeted for gamers and desktop enthusiasts.

Michael

[smp-freak]

Love the new page Michael. For your Solaris part this is gonna be great, Is this with also the opensolaris.org site as well that you will be partnering with? or just the Solaris unix operating system?

[Michael]

Love the new page Michael. For your Solaris part this is gonna be great, Is this with also the opensolaris.org site as well that you will be partnering with? or just the Solaris unix operating system?

Thanks for your kind words.

Phoronix has been discussing this with Sun Microsystems for about the past month or two. I am very interested in OpenSolaris but haven't yet had the time to talk with them.

[smp-freak]

Thanks for your kind words.

Phoronix has been discussing this with Sun Microsystems for about the past month or two. I am very interested in OpenSolaris but haven't yet had the time to talk with them.

Are you going to be sponsering links to download patches, new builds, when they get released?

Is phoronix and Sun going to be making a Wiki for their operating system? or perhaps maybe a linux - Solaris / Solaris - Linux Migration page?

Dunno if I am asking questions here or helping you out with Ideas :D

[Michael]

Are you going to be sponsering links to download patches, new builds, when they get released?

Is phoronix and Sun going to be making a Wiki for their operating system? or perhaps maybe a linux - Solaris / Solaris - Linux Migration page?

Dunno if I am asking questions here or helping you out with Ideas :D

Phoronix will be covering new major Solaris and related Solaris (BeleniX) releases along with other major software packages.

At this time no Wiki.

Phoronix will be covering JavaOne next month. More information will be finalized then.

[JonC]

Hey Michael,

The 1020 is much nicer. The scroll bar is still there, but at least I can see all the content without messing about. I am also glad there aren't blood splotches and cartridges all over the place...

As for the new interest in opensolaris, I think that's great. With solaris likely to go GPL, there's no good reason not to look at it. I suspect there will be a lot of mutual code-sharing between linux and solaris once they are both on GPLv3 (which is looking ever more likely for linux at least).

Keep up the great work!

[Michael]

Bumped the horizontal width from 1020px to 1010px, which should eliminate any bit of scrolling for 1024 x 768 users.

[JonC]

For some reason I still have a little bit of a scrollbar, but it is plenty readable, so I am happy.

[Synergy6]

Is it not possible for the page width to dynamically adjust to the browser width?

[Michael]

Is it not possible for the page width to dynamically adjust to the browser width?

It is possible, but with the way we have it setup right now we will not be doing dynamic width adjustments.

[byteframe]

Shave off another ten pixels and 1024x768 GNOME running epiphany users wont have a horizontal scroll bar. On second thought still have a useless bottom bar for like those few unneeded pixels in firefox too. Minimum Font size is 8, which IS one more than the default of 7, but that shit is tiny.

[Michael]

Shave off another ten pixels and 1024x768 GNOME running epiphany users wont have a horizontal scroll bar. On second thought still have a useless bottom bar for like those few unneeded pixels in firefox too. Minimum Font size is 8, which IS one more than the default of 7, but that shit is tiny.

The width was changed from 1010px wide to 1002px wide yesterday. It should display properly now for 1024 x 768 users. Try clearing your cache to see if that was the problem.

[byteframe]

Everything fits.

[niniendowarrior]

It's finally here!

Should be updated @ http://www.phoronix.com/

Announcement: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=9532

Announcement #2: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=9533

Feel free to discuss what you like and you don't like in this thread. We will be making some tweaks in the coming days and we highly value your feedback.

Michael, I like the new site! Cheers!

I'll go poke around and see if I can add some suggestions.

[hkBst]

I would just like to say that the new design sucks and hurts my eyes.
Maybe if you removed the stupid width limitation it would be bearable.
Until then I'll be relying on slashdot and distrowatch for my news. Goodbye.