Software Linux Reviews & Articles

There have been 901 Linux hardware reviews and benchmark articles on Phoronix for software. Separately, check out our news section for related product news.

OpenGL Benchmarking On Linux Reaches New Heights

We have been covering the Linux benchmarking scene since 2004, but one area we have never really been satisfied with have been the OpenGL tests that are available. There are now plenty of free software games that are available for benchmarking, but with most of them being based around the open-source Quake 3 engine, they aren't that demanding upon the graphics processor. The ones generally good with stressing the graphics capabilities of the system are the id Software games (Doom 3, Quake 4, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars) with native Linux clients. Under the workstation umbrella, there is just SPECViewPerf. On the Windows side though there are a number of OpenGL and DirectX games, tech demos, and other benchmarks. Thanks in part to the Phoronix Test Suite, however, we are starting to see a new era of OpenGL benchmarking that are able to stress the graphics card and are visually pleasing.

3 August 2008 - 11 Comments
Boxee: A New Competitor For MythTV?

For years MythTV has been regarded as the best media center application for the Linux platform and is extremely popular with HTPC enthusiasts. MythTV is open-source and serves as a digital video recorder with support for reading TV listings and it supports a variety of TV tuners. In addition, through various modules the functionality of MythTV can be extended to be an online photo gallery manager, serve as a music player, RSS newsreader, fetch weather forecasts, and provide quite a bit of other functionality. However, MythTV now has a new competitor and that is Boxee. Boxee is a "social media center" that is based upon the Xbox Media Center (XBMC) with versions for Linux, Windows, and MacOS X. What the Boxee developers have added, however, is a social media aspect to media playback. Whenever you are watching something through Boxee, it will record that information and share it with your friends using Boxee and the user also has the ability to recommend the media they are listening to or watching with their friends. Oh yes, it is also open-source.

1 August 2008 - 17 Comments
SplashTop "Instant-On Linux" Gets Hacked

Last October we were the first to deliver a full-review of DeviceVM's SplashTop which was an instant-on embedded Linux distribution at the time found on a lone ASUS motherboard. Since then there has been a commitment to SplashTop on all ASUS motherboards and even on ASUS notebooks. While ASUS has been the primary partner with DeviceVM up to this point, other manufacturers are exploring this market. One of our few gripes about SplashTop is that it's limited in the current applications available and doesn't allow for much tweaking with no terminal access. However, members of the Phoronix Forums have hacked SplashTop. They have been able to run SplashTop from a USB stick on non-ASUS motherboards, boot SplashTop within a virtual machine, run custom applications, and launch a terminal within this proprietary Linux environment.

29 July 2008 - 18 Comments
Features For Phoronix Test Suite 1.2

We're in the middle of the development cycle right now for Phoronix Test Suite 1.2 "Malvik", but we expect to wrap up this first major post-1.0 release in September. Phoronix Test Suite 1.2 -- which is licensed under the GNU GPLv3 -- will ship with full support for a module/plug-in architecture, advanced analytical features, enhanced hardware/software detection support, and support for other UNIX operating systems. In this article we will be sharing some of the features for this new release, which has been codenamed Malvik.

27 July 2008 - 3 Comments
Linux 2.6.26 Kernel Benchmarks

Over the weekend the Linux 2.6.26 kernel was released. This quarterly update to the Linux kernel introduced Kernel-based Virtual Machine improvements, new One Laptop Per Child support, a new video web camera driver, updates to the Direct Rendering Manager, and other improvements. In this article we have done some quick benchmarks of this new kernel from within the Phoronix Test Suite.

17 July 2008 - 4 Comments
Contributors To The X Server

Since our article yesterday entitled X Server 1.4.1 Is Released, No Joke where we shared that the X.Org server update -- a critical part of the Linux desktop -- was released albeit significantly late and the blocker bug list wasn't even cleared, it's sparked discussions on our forums and other online communities on how the X.Org release management can be improved and how new developers can become involved. One of the most common recommendations has been to get more software (distribution) vendors involved, seeing as they are the ones shipping X.Org to many of the desktop users around the world. However, as there hasn't been a list (or at least not in some time) that looks at each of the commits to the X server in regards to each of the companies and the developers involved, we've provided one in this article that covers all X Server activity going back nine years.

11 June 2008 - 21 Comments
Banshee 1.0 Released

Banshee, the Linux media player backed by Novell that's built upon Mono and uses the GStreamer framework, has today reached the version 1.0 milestone. While there are plenty of people not fond of Mono or even Novell, Banshee has turned into a fairly feature-rich media player with support for synchronizing against the Apple iPod, Creative Zen, and other devices. Through Banshee's plug-in architecture, it also supports Podcasting, DAAP music sharing, and Internet radio support, just to name a few of these extensions.

11 June 2008 - 3 Comments
X Server 1.4.1 Is Released, No Joke

Today -- just 212 days after the planned November launch date -- X Server 1.4.1 is finally released! Daniel Stone announced its release this morning on the xorg mailing list. X Server 1.4.1 has had 62 changes to it since the 1.4.1 pre-release, and that release had 46 changes, which brings the change total for this release up to 108. Even though X Server 1.4.1 has more than 100 changes, it wasn't enough to clear out the blocker bug, which still has two open bugs.

10 June 2008 - 11 Comments
Phoronix Test Suite 1.0.0

You have likely already read the Phoronix Test Suite 1.0 press release, but today -- on the fourth anniversary of Phoronix -- we have reached the version 1.0 milestone for this Linux testing platform. It's been a lot of work -- over the past few months especially -- though we've reached our initial goal in formalizing and releasing our internal test tools and at the same time developing a feature-rich platform. Plans are already being made for charting the future of the Phoronix Test Suite and the features we will be rolling out over the coming months, but in this article we'll highlight some of what is already possible with Phoronix Test Suite 1.0.

5 June 2008 - 1 Comment
Phoronix Releases Linux-Based Testing Platform

Phoronix Media today released version 1.0 of the Phoronix Test Suite (codenamed "Trondheim"), an extensible open-source platform for conducting Linux-based benchmarking and performance profiling targeted at IHVs, ISVs, and technology hobbyists. The Phoronix Test Suite combines years of Linux testing by Phoronix Media with input from leading technology companies to offer the most comprehensive testing and benchmarking platform available for the Linux Operating System. The Phoronix Test Suite also offers unprecedented capabilities for collaboration via the suite's online component.

5 June 2008 - 9 Comments
Phoronix Test Suite 0.9.0 Released

Phoronix Test Suite 0.8.0 was released just four days but this afternoon we are announcing the release of Phoronix Test Suite 0.9.0. If all goes well, this will be the last development release prior to the release of Phoronix Test Suite 1.0. While just four days have passed, there is quite a bit of churn within the test profiles and test suites. In fact, all test profiles have been updated in this release -- some have just consisted of validating the code and performing a version bump while other test profiles have had significant additions and other improvements. A few new profiles may be added in at the last minute, but the existing test profiles found within Phoronix Test Suite 0.9.0 should be finalized unless any bugs are to be found.

28 May 2008 - 1 Comment
Phoronix Test Suite 0.8.0 Released

While not as large as last week's release, Phoronix Test Suite 0.8.0 has been released this morning with just over 30 items glazing its change-log. Much of the work done over the past week involved bug fixing, beginning to finalize several tests and suites, and other work in preparation around the forthcoming 1.0 release.

24 May 2008 - 4 Comments
X.Org 7.4 Creeps Closer To Release

Earlier this month we had shared the progress of X.Org 7.4 with the features slated to be included in this next X release, what features have been postponed, and the repeated delays that always seem to plague the X.Org development community. Since then there still has yet to be any official update on its status, but the Wiki continues to claim a May 2008 release. Fortunately, yesterday Adam Jackson stepped up again and released a number of X package updates, which places us a bit closer to reaching this much-delayed release.

22 May 2008 - 15 Comments
SPECViewPerf 10 Released For Linux

While there aren't many workstation OpenGL benchmarks available for Linux, the leading option is SPECViewPerf, which is developed by the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. SPECViewPerf has been around for years and is made up of various production-oriented tests from popular software programs in the real world. Among the programs these tests are based upon include 3DS Max, Maya, SolidWorks, and EnSight. The latest version of SPECViewPerf -- version 10.0 -- first shipped for Windows a year ago, but it wasn't until this morning that the Linux/UNIX code was made available.

21 May 2008 - 5 Comments
Phoronix Test Suite 0.7.0 Released

With the Phoronix Test Suite 1.0 codename being Trondheim, which is a city in Norway, and today being Constitution Day in Norway, what better way to celebrate than to push out a new release! Phoronix Test Suite 0.7.0 contains over 40 major changes since the previous release just a week ago. Some of the top changes in this release include advanced merging capabilities of test results, several new test profiles, and support for abstract result types.

17 May 2008 - Add A Comment
Phoronix Test Suite 0.6.0 Released

For those of you interested in trying out new open-source software this weekend, Phoronix Test Suite 0.6.0 has been released with an arsenal of new features for this Linux benchmarking platform. There are new and updated profiles with this release, new test suites, support for backing up downloaded tests, and much more. Since Phoronix Test Suite 0.5.0 are 48 official changes in the past week, which reinforces our plans on having a 1.0 release ready by early June.

10 May 2008 - 19 Comments
Multi-Pointer X Going Mainline

In our article earlier this week looking at the status of X.Org 7.4, one of the features originally planned for integration in this X Server release was MPX, or Multi-Pointer X. While it's been in development for over two years and has been at an experimental state, it's been featured in popular YouTube videos as this is the technology on Linux that allows multiple keyboards and mice to be attached to a single system and MPX allows these input devices to function independently on the same windowing system. For those of you interested in this desktop technology, it's been announced that MPX will finally be merged into the mainline X.Org tree later this month.

9 May 2008 - 5 Comments
The Progress Of X.Org 7.4

If all goes according to plan, X.Org 7.4 will finally be released this month. This release isn't quite as elaborate as X.Org 7.3, which introduced input hot-plugging, EXA enhancements, and RandR 1.2 to just name a few features, but X.Org 7.4 is another update better enhancing this X server. In this article, we are presenting a release overview of the features to be found in X.Org 7.4, what's been delayed, and how this release is panning out.

4 May 2008 - 4 Comments
Phoronix Test Suite 0.5.0 Released

A week ago Phoronix Test Suite 0.4.0 was released and today Phoronix Test Suite 0.5.0 has outdone that. This release of the Phoronix Test Suite incorporates more than 40 major changes to this open-source Linux benchmarking platform! Among the changes are new test profiles, various clean up work, sensor monitoring support, and an improved PTS Results Viewer. Development of the Phoronix Test Suite is coming along quite nicely and by early June, the public should have its hands on version 1.0.

1 May 2008 - 8 Comments
Sensor Monitoring With PTS

Version 0.5 of the Phoronix Test Suite will be released later this week and already it has over 40 changes in this forthcoming release! There are quite a number of new profiles and features with this release, but one interesting feature that has just begun to evolve is the system sensor monitoring support. Now when tests are running within the Phoronix Test Suite, you can opt to have the Phoronix Test Suite keep track of system sensors -- whether it be your CPU/system temperature, one of the voltage rails, or even your battery discharge rate -- and upon the tests being completed the average sensor results are shown as well as a line graph of each sensor while the test(s) were running.

29 April 2008 - Add A Comment
Phoronix Test Suite 0.4.0 Released

Following last week's release of Phoronix Test Suite 0.3.0 and the 0.3.1 hot-fix, a surprising amount of changes have wound up in this week's development release known as version 0.4.0. In fact, there are 21 major changes in this new release not counting general development work and minor bug fixes. Among the changes are new test profiles, a number of new PTS options, PTS External Dependencies support for new Linux distributions, reworking how results are saved, and the graphs are now rendered locally when saving the results.

24 April 2008 - 25 Comments
Phoronix Test Suite 0.3.0 Released

Less than two weeks ago Phoronix Test Suite 0.2.0 was released, which featured a number of profile updates, improved Linux hardware detection, and incorporating other feedback voiced by the initial users of this Linux benchmarking suite. Last Saturday version 0.2.1 was then released with initial support for PTS External Dependencies, a GLMark profile, GtkPerf profile, FRAC Benchmark profile, and other fixes. Continuing in an expedited development process, Phoronix Test Suite 0.3.0 has been released this morning with a number of major changes, including new test profiles and architectural improvements.

18 April 2008 - Add A Comment
Creative Tries Again At Linux Drivers

Next to drivers for graphics cards and (Atheros and Broadcom) wireless chipsets, the Creative Labs X-Fi series is one of the most complained about pieces of hardware for its Linux support or there the lack of. The Creative X-Fi sound card series is a few years old, but it wasn't until a few months ago that open and closed-source drivers started coming about for this hardware. However, this sound card has still been left in a sorry state, but this week Creative Labs has finally pushed out another Sound Blaster X-Fi Linux beta driver. But does this driver correct their wrong doings from the past?

18 April 2008 - 22 Comments
Demystifying Codenames: Trondheim

When pushing out the first public release of the Phoronix Test Suite, it was announced that the first stable (v1.0) release of this Linux benchmarking suite is codenamed "Trondheim", but what does that mean? After being bombarded with messages asking what is Trondheim or what it means as a codename, we have decided to explain it once and for all in this article.

13 April 2008 - 11 Comments
Phoronix Test Suite 0.2

Less than a week ago we pushed out the first public release of the Phoronix Test Suite. This GPLv3 Linux benchmarking software had received a great deal of interest, but v0.1 did have a few bugs and a number of uncompleted features. Yesterday though we pushed out version 0.2 of the Phoronix Test Suite with a number of improvements, new benchmarking profiles, and other changes. In addition to noting some of the improvements made in this release, there are also other Phoronix Test Suite highlights to share from this past week.

7 April 2008 - 11 Comments
Phoronix Test Suite Released

Back in early February we announced that we were in the process of formalizing and releasing our internal test tools as a platform for facilitating easy to use, accurate, and reproducible Linux benchmarks based upon the testing work that we have been doing at Phoronix for the past four years. The goals with this are really to make it easier for Linux end-users to run reliable (both qualitative and quantitative) benchmarks for their own personal use, push more open-source projects to making their software more testable, and pushing hardware and software vendors for greater Linux testing based upon a standardized set of tests. Today we are very pleased to announce the first public release of the Phoronix Test Suite software, which is licensed under the GNU GPLv3, and the creation of a public database for freely sharing your test results and other information in a collaborative manner.

2 April 2008 - 64 Comments
An Early Look At KDE 4.1

The first alpha release of KDE 4.1 isn't planned until the end of April, but this past weekend the OpenSuSE team had updated their KDE Four Live spin against the latest KDE 4.0.66 snapshot packages. The KDE 4.0.66 development packages contain new Kickoff and Plasma features along with much other work to the numerous packages that will ultimately make up this first major update to KDE 4.

17 March 2008 - 6 Comments
Measuring Fedora's Boot Performance

Last month we had measured Ubuntu's boot performance via the open-source Bootchart utility and had done this on all Ubuntu releases between Ubuntu 6.06 LTS and the latest development build at the time for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. From this testing we had found the boot time to decrease with each official release and the maximum disk throughput increasing. With Fedora 9 Sulphur due out next month, we have done this same boot performance testing on the Fedora side with Core 4, Core 5, Core 6, 7, 8, and 9 Rawhide.

11 March 2008 - 4 Comments
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Gets An XRandR GUI

A week ago, Canonical's Bryce Harrington had pushed an XRandR GUI into Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, which can now be found inside Alpha 6. This utility facilitates the dynamic management of displays using the RandR 1.2 extension, which is similar to URandR, GRandR, and other RandR front-ends. This new package has caught our attention and led us to explore its capabilities for display management.

9 March 2008 - 8 Comments
The New Compiz Fusion Settings Manager

In the first Compiz Fusion update since last October, Compiz Fusion 0.7.2 was released this morning and accompanied by an update to Compiz. This Compiz Fusion update was not only the first in five months, but also it was the first in the 0.7 development series leading up to the stable Compiz/Compiz Fusion 0.8 release. Compiz Fusion 0.7.2 has a number of new plug-ins (11 total) and also some changes to the configuration manager. The Compiz Config Settings Manager has some minor updates in different areas, while this release also includes an alternate settings manager. The Simple Compiz Config Settings Manager, or simple-ccsm as it's called, is focused for simplicity and looks dramatically different from the main settings manager. We have screenshots and comments on the simple-ccsm in this article.

7 March 2008 - Add A Comment

901 software articles published on Phoronix.