Intel Hardware & Linux 3.12 Dominated September
Once again it was another busy month for your's truly in single-handedly writing this Linux and open-source content seven days per week, which amounted to almost eight news articles per day and almost one featured article per weekday. If you appreciate this up-to-date, thorough, and continuous coverage on topics that are interesting for Linux fans, gamers, and hardware enthusiasts, please do consider subscribing to Phoronix Premium or making a PayPal tip. Premium subscriptions allow for viewing multi-page articles on a single page, allow ad-free viewing, and do a lot to support the Phoronix operations. Please at least disable AdBlock as revenues/ads have been down a lot lately while working on the site doesn't get any less burdensome...
Anyhow, back on track the most popular news this month on Phoronix included:
FreeBSD Is No Longer Building GCC By Default
As of last week, the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is no longer being compiled by default as part of the FreeBSD base system.
Intel Reverts Plans, Will Not Support Ubuntu's XMir
In an interesting change of events, the mainline Intel Linux graphics driver has reverted the patch to support XMir -- the X11 compatibility layer for the Mir Display Server in Ubuntu Linux.
SSD Failure Temporarily Halts Linux 3.12 Kernel Work
The failure of a solid-state drive in Linus Torvalds' main workstation has led to new activity during the Linux 3.12 kernel merge window being temporarily suspended.
Good Features For The Linux 3.12 Kernel
While the Linux 3.12 kernel isn't even up to its first RC release and thus the merge window hasn't closed yet, Linux 3.12 has already collected a number of promising features for the open-source kernel.
An Overview Of Linux 3.12 Kernel Features
The merge window for the Linux 3.12 kernel is coming to an end and 3.12-rc1 should be released soon. Here's an overview of the interesting merges that happened over the past two weeks as new features for Linux 3.12.
The SteamBox Countdown Is Complete
The SteamBox countdown page just expired!
Linux 3.12 Codenamed "Suicidal Squirrel"
After the Linux 3.11 kernel was codenamed "Linux for Workgroups" in reminisce of Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Linus Torvalds is using "Suicidal Squirrel" as the Linux 3.12 kernel codename.
Next Week Will Be Real Exciting For Linux Users
From interesting events to a number of important announcements, next week should be very exciting for open-source fans, gamers, and Linux enthusiasts.
Meanwhile, for our other reviews/multi-page articles, the most viewed content came down to:
Intel Iris Pro 5200 vs. HD Graphics 4600
After several weeks of testing the Linux-friendly System76 Gazelle Pro Haswell laptop, we've now been using the System76 Galago UltraPro for a wide variety of Linux testing as its powered by the Core i7 4750HQ CPU with Iris Pro 5200 graphics. In the preview article for this System76 ultrabook we ran some early comparative tests while in this article are some direct Ubuntu 13.10 comparison benchmarks between System76's two Intel Haswell laptops. What's most interesting to see with these results is how much faster the Iris Pro graphics are over HD Graphics 4600.
11-Way AMD Radeon GPU Comparison On Linux 3.12, Mesa 9.3
After last week delivering new AMD Radeon HD 7000 Gallium3D benchmarks from the Mesa 9.3 development driver and the Linux 3.12 Git kernel, up today is a much larger open-source AMD Radeon graphics comparison using the latest code that's yet to be officially released. From the Linux 3.12 kernel and Mesa 9.3-devel, eleven different AMD Radeon graphics cards spanning multiple generations were compared with the latest open-source Linux graphics driver code.
Intel Iris Pro Linux Graphics Yield Some Wins Against Windows
For the past few days at Phoronix we have begun looking extensively at the Intel Iris Pro 5200 graphics under Linux, since receiving the System76 Galago UltraPro. The Iris Pro 5200 are the new high-end Intel Haswell graphics that have 128MB of embedded video RAM on the die, which should yield a nice performance boost when properly implemented within the Intel Linux driver. Already our testing has found the Iris Pro performance on Linux has doubled with open-source driver improvements since Haswell's launch. Now we're out today with our first Intel Iris Pro OpenGL gaming benchmarks between Ubuntu Linux and Microsoft Windows 8 for this Intel Core i7 Ultrabook.
X.Org vs. XMir On KDE, Xfce, Unity Desktops
The latest interesting Linux test results to share this week for those not at Oktoberfest are 2D and 3D/OpenGL benchmark results when testing XMir and a pure X.Org Server configuration with the Xfce, Unity, and KDE desktops as will be found in next month's Ubuntu 13.10 release.
Intel Iris Pro 5200 Graphics
While we have delivered tons of Intel Haswell coverage on Phoronix -- more than 100 stories on the latest-generation Intel processors and graphics written by your's truly -- one of the areas not yet covered have been the high-end Iris Pro Graphics with integrated eDRAM. We haven't been able to run any Linux benchmarks of the Iris Pro due to lack of hardware, but System76 is said to be soon sending over a review sample of their Galago UltraPro with Iris Pro Graphics 5200. In the meantime, however, a Phoronix reader has graciously lent us remote access to his Iris Pro system for Ubuntu Linux graphics testing.
Intel Iris Pro Linux Performance Doubles With Driver Upgrades
Last week I ran a System76 Galago UltraPro Preview with some benchmark results and a special article looking at the Intel Iris Pro 5200, the Haswell graphics cores with 128MB of dedicated video memory stacked onto the die itself. Those tests were done remotely but now with having a System76 Galago UltraPro ultrabook review sample in the labs, here are some fresh tests looking at the very latest state of Haswell Iris Pro graphics under Linux. The benchmarks cover the state of Ubuntu 13.04 going through the latest open-source Linux graphics driver code with the yet-to-be-released Mesa 9.3 and the Linux 3.12 kernel.
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