The 2010 Linux Graphics Survey Is Coming Up

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The 2010 Linux Graphics Survey Is Coming Up

For a fourth year we will once again be hosting the annual Linux Graphics Survey at Phoronix. This survey is designed to quantify what areas of the Linux graphics stack that end-users are most interested in, the popularity of the different Linux drivers and hardware in use, and to collect other metrics of interest to developers and other stakeholders...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=ODQ0Nw

[devius]

There is a question about the prefered method of changing graphics settings. Althoug interesting it doesn't show the whole picture. Sometimes one has to resort to manually editing xorg.conf because none of the other methods work. It would be interesting to have a question where you ask if the user had to resort to some sort of manual configuration/hack/whatever in order to get the driver working. This could potentially show how easy or difficult it is to install each driver.

[Veerappan]

There is a question about the prefered method of changing graphics settings. Althoug interesting it doesn't show the whole picture. Sometimes one has to resort to manually editing xorg.conf because none of the other methods work. It would be interesting to have a question where you ask if the user had to resort to some sort of manual configuration/hack/whatever in order to get the driver working. This could potentially show how easy or difficult it is to install each driver.

I believe that question is in there...


My contribution:
-Which of the listed display feature(s) do you use on your Linux system?
- Add audio output via HDMI/DisplayPort

-Update X.org versions

-Which of the listed technologies are you most interested in as a end-user?
- Add "Increased 3D performance/compatibility/features" or something similar.. although I do see a similar choice in the video driver concerns section.

-What is the resolution that your desktop is running at?
- Add some sort of differentiation that can be done for widescreen setups.. maybe change the entries to #(megapixels) with example resolutions.
- This also doesn't take into account multi-display setups. Maybe change the wording to "What is the resolution of your primary display?"



Otherwise, most of the questions from last year still look pretty applicable.

[Craig73]

-What is the resolution that your desktop is running at?
- Add some sort of differentiation that can be done for widescreen setups.. maybe change the entries to #(megapixels) with example resolutions.
- This also doesn't take into account multi-display setups. Maybe change the wording to "What is the resolution of your primary display?"

I would find # megapixels confusing (that makes sense for cameras but not for screens)

[Craig73]

General
+ Other box ... if you check this do we get a box we can type a response into? (it should, if only to see what people are using that isn't being captured in the quesitons)

Which of the listed technologies are you most interested in as a end-user?
+ is this question targeted at end users? Perhaps some simplified language and/or brief summary of what the feature means to the end user. [ie - I might not think I care about kernal mode setting, or even know what it is, but I care about the benefits]
+ GPGPU / OpenCL / Cuda
+ Rootless X, X12, Wayland, (or other future architecture)
+ Touch, multi touch, and Pen Input (not strickly 'graphics' but definitely part of the graphics stack no... seems in part to impact X)

Which video adapter brand do you use in your Linux system?
+ VirtualBox / etc. (Linux running virtualized)

Which of the listed display feature(s) do you use on your Linux system?
+ this question has always annoyed me because I would use TV-out if my driver supported it, but it doesn't --- so it might make it seem like I don't care about this feature but I do

How do you configure your display(s) on your Linux system?
+ use distribution defaults (haven't 'configured')

What is the resolution that your desktop is running at?
+ these all seem to assume widescreen, and don't give many lower or standard resolutions?
+ can you capture the resolution from the web browser?

Do you use a compositing window manager / desktop effects?
+ do people know / should there be an i don't know response, or again text that tells people how to check. [ie, did someone just use the distribution default and doesn't really know]

What are your key interests or concerns with Linux video drivers?
+ what are people's top concerns? I could check all of them off, but if an vendor is to focus on just a couple, what should they be?

What are your key interests or concerns with Linux video drivers?
+ GPGPU / OpenCL / CUDA
+ Does 2D performance truly/clearly include acceleration of X / my web browser / etc?
+ Colour accuracy (I want to know my screen represents my output. Perhaps this is part of image quality - but this is something specific and should be a distinct item)
+ Power management
+ Ease of debugging reporting issues [when the video driver or X locks, ideally I want it to recognize it failed when I reboot, I want it to autosubmit a bug with relevant information, or allow me to turn on debugging and redo what I just did to see if it will fail and capture the required info... without me touching the command line]


Which of the below tasks do you actively use on your Linux system?
+ presentations and video (usage and features benefiting external TV-out such as having something different on the TV-out as on the desktop, or different resolutions on the output device vs the desktop]

How would you classify your usage of Linux?
+ under this or a separate question, should we clarify someone's 'expertise' or where they use linux. Are they generally a developer, desktop support, user, power user, server administrator, etc. (I'd even be curious if they were employed in a computer related field if they are a Linux user at work, at home, or both; or are they say primarily Windows at work and Linux at home, etc.)


Other sources of data
+ the survey is great --- but what about polling all the hardware databases out there maintained by distributions. Can you supplement the survey with statistics on what hardware/chipsets/and driver/X/kernel revisions are actually in use.

It's one thing to see that 10% of phoronix users are using intel (great for your advertisers), but it would interesting to see if the hardware databases show 60% usage of intel hardware in general and what % of which chipset generation is in use (ie, do they focus on newer hardware as they should, but there is a gap as 30% of users are still using 8xx chipsets as an example?)

I think Phoronix is in a good position to promote updating the automated reporting of hardware/software and getting a current look at what is actually out used in the wild (promote it beyond phoronix to benefit the community at large)

[pingufunkybeat]

I don't use any of the mentioned methods to configure X, since it works out of the box without an xorg.conf (oss drivers).

I haven't had the need to adjust anything in almost a year.

[allquixotic]

For the question "What are your key interests or concerns with Linux video drivers?":

I think each selectable option should have N radio buttons next to it (where N is the number of questions) and ask the users to rank the options on how important they are. The willy-nilly-pick-whatever-you-want approach is kind of bias, because some people click them all, some people only click their top 3, some click their top 5, etc. At the sacrifice of the resultant number not really showing you how many users actually voted for each item, this ranking system would allow us to see how often (on average) each item was ranked high.

So if there were 11 items, you could rank 3d performance with an 11, which gives 11 "points" to the aggregate "score" of 3d performance. Someone else might rank it 1, and so on.

Only thing you have to do, then, is make sure that each ordinal position is only clicked once. Two options cannot both be assigned the same number of points. Maybe have an N/A radio button which is selected as the default; accept N/A as "0 points"; but pop up a JS alert if they assign the same number twice (they would have to explicitly click in the same "column" of the radio button table twice on two different rows in order to trigger it).

[V!NCENT]

Will fill this in, but Phoronix is already doing fine for the largest part. However if you want something a little more useful you should add an open answer box at the end to ask readers what they like and dislike about Phoronix. That should help a lot more.

[Kano]

But what do do when you have got several nv/ati/intel cards/onboard solutions

[allquixotic]

But what do do when you have got several nv/ati/intel cards/onboard solutions

The survey isn't really designed to be filled out by enthusiasts and people like Michael who have ridiculous amounts of varied hardware sitting around. What they are trying to gather is the "typical" user data. Although I must admit, most typical users wouldn't know if they're using xf86-video-ati or fglrx, unless Ubuntu lectured them about binary drivers and they make the mental connection.

I'm in your boat though, I have lots of hardware.