Recommended Linux Motherboard Vendor?

[oliver]

Hi,

I'm oliver, and new to the phornix boards. I am however not new to computers and Linux

I do have an urging question though. What motherboard manufacturer offers the best GNU/Linux (and maybe bsd too) support.

I personally used Asus for a long, long time. They are supposed to have very high quality motherboards.

So today, i stumble uppon this 2004 article, claiming that Asus is very anti open source etc. (http://mozillaquest.com/Linux04/Asus..._Story-01.html) (They actually called asus etc).

Anyhow, I know for server grade stuff, it usually isn't that big of an issue, since manufacturers know that linux support is important on servers ...

So ... what motherboard vendor officially offers some sort of support/acceptance/cherrishes linux?

[Michael]

Originally Posted by oliver

Hi,

I'm oliver, and new to the phornix boards. I am however not new to computers and Linux

I do have an urging question though. What motherboard manufacturer offers the best GNU/Linux (and maybe bsd too) support.

I personally used Asus for a long, long time. They are supposed to have very high quality motherboards.

So today, i stumble uppon this 2004 article, claiming that Asus is very anti open source etc. (http://mozillaquest.com/Linux04/Asus..._Story-01.html) (They actually called asus etc).

Anyhow, I know for server grade stuff, it usually isn't that big of an issue, since manufacturers know that linux support is important on servers ...

So ... what motherboard vendor officially offers some sort of support/acceptance/cherrishes linux?

Tyan (they have a few desktop boards ), Abit, and ASUS are among the best vendors in general that we have come across at Phoronix. The matter of ASUS being totally anti-open source is a fallacy.

[oliver]

Originally Posted by Michael

Tyan (they have a few desktop boards ), Abit, and ASUS are among the best vendors in general that we have come across at Phoronix. The matter of ASUS being totally anti-open source is a fallacy.

Well that's good to hear. The article was from 2004, so hopefully if it was true then, they have changed their fews.

I know Abit makes great boards too, but they stopped for a while, and now, I don't know

As for tyan, the only desktop board (http://tyan.com/products/html/tomcatk8esli.html) is nVidia based.

Now I'm sure nVidia makes really descent hardware, but also nVidia doesn't like OSS at all. Yes I know they have really descent drivers.

But this came from the CEO of nVidia himself, that they don't like OpenSource. Wether he ment that they never would open their drivers because of IP issues I'm not sure, since that was said in 2005. So I choose to not buy nVidia, no matter how good their hardware and closed source drivers are (for video cards at that).

So if you want to argue nVidia chipsets, I'd be glad to hear it, but they better be really good arguments, other then performance and features

[Michael]

Originally Posted by oliver

Well that's good to hear. The article was from 2004, so hopefully if it was true then, they have changed their fews.

I know Abit makes great boards too, but they stopped for a while, and now, I don't know

As for tyan, the only desktop board (http://tyan.com/products/html/tomcatk8esli.html) is nVidia based.

Now I'm sure nVidia makes really descent hardware, but also nVidia doesn't like OSS at all. Yes I know they have really descent drivers.

But this came from the CEO of nVidia himself, that they don't like OpenSource. Wether he ment that they never would open their drivers because of IP issues I'm not sure, since that was said in 2005. So I choose to not buy nVidia, no matter how good their hardware and closed source drivers are (for video cards at that).

So if you want to argue nVidia chipsets, I'd be glad to hear it, but they better be really good arguments, other then performance and features

The nForce Professional is really a beauty, but everyone has their own vendettas. So I take it you're interested in an AMD Socket 939 solution or what socket are you looking to use?

[oliver]

Originally Posted by Michael

The nForce Professional is really a beauty, but everyone has their own vendettas. So I take it you're interested in an AMD Socket 939 solution or what socket are you looking to use?

Well right now I got an Asus with the Via KT880 chipset, ergo a Socket-A. Yes it's an old system.

Firstly I (technically my friend, but i'm helping him out want a server first, later, (around AM2+ time, but if possible wait until AM3 time) a desktop.

So right now, he's looking for a (home) server motherboard.
He wants to put in a raid5 (kernel raid) solution with 3 or 4 harddisks. All this served over a gbit link. He did prefer onboard video since those boards are generally cheaper (Asus M2V-MX for 52 Euro's). And, he was thinking of maybe hooking up a tv on it and make it also a mythfrontend. (To an additional mythfronend running in his livingroom.)

So the server would have to do sofware wise: nfs/cifs, ftp/http, mythbackend and an occasional gameserver or such. So right now, we have our mind set to an Asus M2V-MX with the Athlon 64 x2 3800 (only 100Euro's). Though initally we would have had plenty with a semperon 2800+, reinstalling gentoo is a bitch to switch from 32bit to 64bit mode, so fork out the extra cache to not only go 64bit, but also dual core while we're at it.

[1c3d0g]

For server use there's only one motherboard manufacturer I'd recommend: Tyan. It's too bad you (or your friend) don't want anything to do with NVIDIA-based chipsets, 'cuase you're missing out on a lot.

[oliver]

Originally Posted by 1c3d0g

For server use there's only one motherboard manufacturer I'd recommend: Tyan. It's too bad you (or your friend) don't want anything to do with NVIDIA-based chipsets, 'cuase you're missing out on a lot.

Well, this is a home server, for normal people. Tyan's are too expensive, and so are opterons.

Normally we'd just use scrap hardware, old leftover components, but he doens't have any laying around, and he just wants something faster for a change. (a mythbackend does want some CPU power for transcoding n such).

So we decided on a desktop board, with a cheap CPU. he then can later put his faster CPU into his server, and upgrade it that way.

As for nVidia, let them show their love for OSS by realeasing SOME of their stuff. Now they link to the forcedeth driver, a reverse engineerd driver. Made without the specs and what not. (just to name something). To me, that's just bad. It's just politics, i'm sure their products are great. And I'm sure not everybody working their has this view, but as long as their CEO does, I do too.

[joshuapurcell]

I have to recommend DFI, especially if you are after an AMD board. The board I have has been great so far. I've also had ASUS boards in the past and they seemed to work fine as well.

[joshuapurcell]

Wow, what a coincidence. One of the best motherboard support forums on the internet, and one that happened to be all-DFI has closed down. This forum, Dfi-Street, was really the main reason why I personally went with a DFI motherboard. Ijust now spent the last 30 minutes (since making the last post) reading as to why the forums shut down, but it seems it was because the DFI-Street forum admin AngryGames made some comments on the forum that were negative about DFI management in some way. In other words, biting the hand that feeds you. AngryGames always came off to me as one that could easily be found in that position considering his posts on the old forum.

Anyway, DFI boards are great in the experience I've had. Now that the knowledge base is gone (at least temporarily... we'll see if it returns) I have a little harder time being so gung-ho about DFI. But the forums being gone doesn't change the fact that this board has been great for me and for many other people... it remains to be seen if the online community behind this manufacturer will continue to provide support as they did in the past.

[oliver]

Originally Posted by joshuapurcell

Wow, what a coincidence. One of the best motherboard support forums on the internet, and one that happened to be all-DFI has closed down. This forum, Dfi-Street, was really the main reason why I personally went with a DFI motherboard. Ijust now spent the last 30 minutes (since making the last post) reading as to why the forums shut down, but it seems it was because the DFI-Street forum admin AngryGames made some comments on the forum that were negative about DFI management in some way. In other words, biting the hand that feeds you. AngryGames always came off to me as one that could easily be found in that position considering his posts on the old forum.

Anyway, DFI boards are great in the experience I've had. Now that the knowledge base is gone (at least temporarily... we'll see if it returns) I have a little harder time being so gung-ho about DFI. But the forums being gone doesn't change the fact that this board has been great for me and for many other people... it remains to be seen if the online community behind this manufacturer will continue to provide support as they did in the past.

Does DFI however acknoledge and support linux?

This is somewhat important to me, as I like to back a company, that backs me.

I used to know DFI as the 'budget' mobos. Then they had a few OC/fast mobos. What I really care most about is stability. Stability is number one. OCing and such is a close second, but stability is first. Price i suppose as the usual 3rd option comes last . But all these points don't matter if there isn't any official GNU/Linux / OSS support.