The Phoronix Test Suite Gets A GUI
Since releasing the Phoronix Test Suite to the public a year ago, one of the most popular feature requests has been for a graphical user interface. The Phoronix Test Suite is not exactly difficult to use from a command line, but this feature has been in development for Phoronix Test Suite 2.0. However, with this morning's release of Phoronix Test Suite 1.8.0 Alpha 2, a preview of this GUI has been introduced. Those testing Linux, OpenSolaris, BSD, and Mac OS X systems now have a simple yet intuitive interface for facilitating their system benchmarks.
The optional user interface for the Phoronix Test Suite is written in GTK2 and requires the PHP GTK module. In Phoronix Test Suite 1.8 (codenamed Selbu) is the initial interface while it will be finalized for the release of Phoronix Test Suite 2.0 later this year. The interface supports managing test installations, viewing information on tests and suites, looking at test results, carrying out the actual testing process, and other features. As of today's Alpha 2 release, many of the command line features have been implemented within the GUI while more work will be arrive in future releases.
The system's software and hardware information can also be viewed within the Phoronix Test Suite GUI. This is actually one of the first GUIs on Linux for looking at detailed information about the installed software/hardware. All of the hardware information (CPU, motherboard, chipset, system memory, etc) and software information (OS, kernel, desktop environment, display server, OpenGL, compiler file-system) is displayed along with readings from the various detected sensors and other readings. So even if you are not interested in benchmarking, here is a GUI to easily look at detailed information about your PC.
From the Phoronix Test Suite GTK2 GUI you can quickly look at different details about tests and suites -- along with choosing to install and/or run them. The Phoronix Test Suite batch and defaults mode is also supported for benchmarking from the GUI.