I just thought I'd give an update on some of current aspects of my life revolving around Linux.

BIOSLEVEL.com

For past articles on BIOSLEVEL, I've used Ubuntu 8.04 for benchmarking hardware in Linux. Around the middle of June, I replaced Ubuntu with Gentoo 2008.0. This is mostly due to reasons I've mentioned previously, mainly that Ubuntu simply doesn't feel responsive on a quad-core system, whereas Gentoo flies.

After testing some of the hardware I've already reviewed in Gentoo such as the Sapphire Radeon HD3870 Ultimate and Toxic. Since applications such as SDL and OpenAL are compiled from the source and optimized for the platform at hand in Gentoo, there is some performance benefit. Average FPS in Unreal Tournament 2004 increased by about five for both cards.

Matthew Daly recently published an article discussing the points on how Linux could be a better gaming OS than Windows. I have no doubt that it could, but driver support is still well behind Windows. If more game publishers released Linux ports of their games simultaneously with Windows versions, I'm sure there'd be more pressure on videocard manufacturers to get the drivers up to par. Although, AMD is promising CrossFire support sometime this year.

On a final note, BIOSLEVEL will soon be posting a review of one of Highpoint's SATA RocketRAID cards. The review will cover Linux alone, ignoring any sort of Windows compatibility or performance numbers. That said, BIOSLEVEL.com will be the first review site to look at the cards under Linux. Provided we finish the review on a timely schedule, our review and site will be promoted at LinuxWorld in August. Colin and I are partially crossing our fingers that Highpoint will offer to fly the two of us to LinuxWorld. I doubt that'll happen, however.

Linux on the MacBook

A few weeks ago, I decided that I'd had enough of OS X and installed Gentoo on my MacBook to replace it. The system "works", but a few key features aren't quite there yet. Namely wireless, 3D acceleration, and the touchpad.

My fifth-generation MacBook's Broadcom wireless adapter is supported by the Linux kernel, but the correct firmware needs to be found and "extracted" first so it can be loaded in to the card. This is where I'm stuck with wireless, but I'm hoping to have it resolved before school resumes at the end of August.

I waited until November of last year to purchase my MacBook so I'd have Intel's latest graphics chipset, the X3100. Intel's graphics and direct rendering are supported by the kernel, but full support varies from laptop to laptop. I've read that the kernel drivers only support up to OpenGL 1.5, depsite the adapter supporting DirectX 10. I'm not sure if OpenGL 2.0 is supported in Windows or not. Regardless, I may have to wait until a new kernel is released to get better support for this.

The graphics are what piss me off the most. One of the ideas of installing Linux on the MacBook was the though of being able to play games on it such as Unreal Tournament 2004 and World of Warcraft. While there are native ports of both of these games for OS X, the OS X version of UT2004 was only released for the PowerPC architecture, and thusly runs like crap on the Intel CPU.

Lastly, the touchpad. I guess the device doesn't appear correctly and has a different ID and name than what the kernel and synaptics driver expect. Moving and clicking work fine, but I can adjust the speed or sensitivty of the pad without the Synaptics driver properly working. Additionally, the MacBook has no right-click button. In OS X, a right-click can be simulated by tapping the touch pad with two fingers. This is possible in Linux as well, but as I said, my hardware is retarded.

Possible Upgrade?

I'm looking into getting a laptop from Asus for review. My previous laptop was an Asus barebones featuring a Pentium M CPU and GeForce 6600 videocard. Despite not being dual-core, the laptop was awesome. One of my reasons for ditching it for the MacBook was the form factor. A 15.4" laptop is simply too bulky to carry around at school in a bag that also holds your notebooks and one or two textbooks.

Ideally, the upcoming 8.9" or 10" Intel Atom-Power EeePCs from Asus would make great replacements for the MacBook, but over the last few weeks of spending time with friends, I've become rather sick of dismantling my small-form factor gaming PC and LCD monitor to drag to someone's house to game on. I miss the days of simply taking my laptop. I'm talking with Asus about obtaining one of their 14.1" widescreen notebooks with a discrete videocard (read: nVidia or ATI) to use for mobile gaming.

Of course, I doubt I'll get rid of the MacBook even if I keep the Asus laptop. Everyone needs two laptops, right?

That's it for now. I've been brainstorming ideas for my senior project for college this upcoming year, and I think I may have finally settled on something. "Something" is, of course, Linux-related. More to come.

I purchased my MacBook back in November of 2007, shortly after the Santa Rosa chipset update. I'd use Mac OS X a little previously, mostly in the form of trying out OSX86 on my old laptop. After using it for several months as my primary mobile platform, I decided it was time for something different.

OS X is nice and all. User-friendly, intuitive, and works fantastic with the hardware Apple ships. I still feel it's lacking in some areas where Linux excels, such as configurability and the space for customization. Not to mention that there's essentially no decent games out for OS X. I can install Linux and throw on a native version of UT2004 and play away now.

Installation wasn't horribly difficult, but Mac OS X was needed at least initially, and I didn't realize this. Gentoo now boots without an issue on the MacBook. All that I need to finish doing is installing the programs I need and setting up the WiFi.

I'm hoping that I have all the hardware working correctly in the next week or so, and that includes the web cam and touchpad. My only other concern is battery life. It'd be fantastic if I get the same amount or more battery out of the machine with Linux.

LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals. You won't go on there and find all the teenage themes, music, and video. Rather, you're able to add a single picture of yourself, and your profile focuses much more on your job experience, awards, and interests.

Colin invited me to join LinkedIn a few months ago, and I think it's been worth it. Mind you, it is free. I've established a network with several of the contacts I work with on obtaining review samples, as well as a few "corporate folk" from Buffalo Wild Wings. Not to say it'll grab me a new job in the near future, but anything helps.

I added a LinkedIn button to the staff profiles at BIOSLEVEL. It shows up on the "About Us" page right next to the person's name. Of course, not all the staff have it, as much as I'd like them to.

I wonder what Linux developers are on LinkedIn.

Nikos posted his desktop to his blog, which was syndicated by Planet Larry, a Gentoo-oriented syndication. My blog is also syndicated there. He tagged a few people to show their setups, and I've been meaning to take a few pictures of mine, so I decided to show off as well. You can see a few other setups from Gentoo users and developers and George on Planet Larry.

My brand new Nikon D40 DSLR came yesterday, and today I've got a fully-charged battery. So why not take a few snapshots with the new camera?

First up is the desktop itself. From left to right, there's a 17" Samsung LCD, a 22" Acer LCD, and a 20" Princeton LCD. The 22" and 20" are connected to my desktop through DVI to my GeForce 8800GTX. The 17" is used with my benchmarking rig, or my server as needed. Below the monitors are my MacBook, G15 Keyboard, and Logitech G5 and MX510 mice.

Next up are my towers. The one on the bottom is my desktop, featuring a Core2Quad Q6600 CPU, 4GB of RAM, a GeForce 8800GTX video card, two 36GB Raptors, and about 400GB between three other drives.

Above it is my benchmarking rig, which has an AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard dive, and an AMD Radeon HD3870 video card.

Lastly, I'm posting a picture of some of my upcoming reviews and previous reviews. They're sitting on my shelves. Some of the stuff I can't talk about is behind the sheet. Shhhh!

I didn't picture my home server because it's currently in pieces waiting for a new heatsink. I also didn't picture the Asus Barebones I previously reviewed on BIOSLEVEL because it's connected to my TV for an upcoming article!

I hope you enjoyed my workstation. I'm tagging Roy, Colin, and John.

The Gentoo 2008.0 Beta has been in existence for a few months, but I've only recently gotten around to testing it. Obviously I like the updated kernel and hardware detection since the last release, but there's a few things I'm not a fan of, or rather, one large thing:

A graphical installer for installing the base system. I don't know. I guess it'll make it easier for new Gentoo users, but I think I may very well stick to the good old command line for installation. With each release, Gentoo seems to be moving farther and farther away from what it used to be.

Will the graphical installer include support for a Stage 1 installation? I doubt it. In Stage 1, everything on the computer is compiled natively according to the user's settings. For example, a base system comes with components X, Y, and Z. In a stage 3 setup, these components are pre-compiled and left alone. In stage 1, each of these components are recompiled for optimal use.

I just hope Gentoo doesn't move towards using binary packages.