Quoting Craig Sanders ([email protected]):
a) while i do most of my gaming on a windows box i built out of spare
parts, i still play some games on linux, either native games or using
wine.
b) vdpau video acceleration for mythtv (and smplayer etc).
if i didn't need those two things then either nouveau or the free radeon
driver would be more than adequate for a desktop machine.
Thank you for clarifying that. I read your post and was trying to think
of a way to express a politely different perspective based on
different use cases without accidentally sounding like I was arguing.
Unfortunately, on the Internet as I'm sure you know, tone and nuance are
lossy - and many's the time I've tried to say 'I'm glad that works for
you, notwithstanding which other things entirely have proved better for
me based on other priorities', yet, people act as if you'd challenged
the other chap to a duel.
Your choices are absolutely sound for your requirements list. Of
course.
I've been known to archly quote, to (for example) gamers telling me that
Nvidia proprietary drivers are indispensible on account of frame rate
and perfect streaming HD video, Mr. Lincoln saying 'That's the kind
of thing that will be enjoyed by those who enjoy that kind of thing',
intending to sound broad-minded and good-natured -- but start a small
war for my good intentions. (You might have heard of Mr. Lincoln.
Funny-looking bloke, tall, gaunt, famous teller of stories and jokes,
wore black and a stovepipe hat, held the American Presidency until it
turned out his retirement plan was decidedly missing.)
But I digress.
I approached this subject because of telling my LUG I'd like to build or
buy a back-of-house, inside-LAN Linux server to do at least a few
things: (a) Puppet or Chef master (configuration management), (b)
network IDS, (c) online backup target. Being in sleeping space, as far
from my small home server farm as possible so the same fire or burglar
won't likely get both, it ought to be quiet, low-power, and small. I'm
enormously fond of future-proofing by spending enough to buy something I
reasonably hope to still be excellent in 5, 10, 15, maybe even 20 years
if I'm lucky and plan right. And one of the earliest lessons I learned
is that going heavy on RAM (or at least capacity to expand it) is the
best future-proofing, followed by good I/O, followed distantly by CPU.
On my home LAN, network I/O matters less than it ought, because my home
aDSL (static IP) has abysmal throughput for distressingly unclear
reasons but we fear it's because my beloved family residence is at
maximum distance from the telco central office where the DSLAM is -- a
First World instance of the proverbial Last Mile Problem.
I also feel slightly guilty about running colo-type rackmount gear still
left over from my old employer VA Linux Systems that draws more mains
power than a well-selected small server should. (Yes, my VA gear is
absurdly old. I know that.) So, I admire the mains thriftiness of,
e.g., the Pi, and would aspire to approach that.
Anyway, after being crystal-clear about my needs and objectives, my LUG
friends gave me advice:
1. 'Get a Raspberry Pi model B.' (This was before the current 2 model B.)
Me: 'Um, 512kB? Nothing better than microSD and USB2? No
eSATA/SATA/mSATA. Really?'
2. 'Get a Beagleboard Black.'
Me: 'Um, 512kB? Nothing better than microSD and USB2? No
eSATA/SATA/mSATA. Really?'
3. 'Get a large Intel 8-core thing and put it in a colo.'
Me: 'Um, did you listen to _any_ part of the target requirements?'
4. 'Get a small Atom-based board. Put an SSD on it.'
Me: 'That's getting there, but why does it have an 8GB RAM ceiling.
Did I slip through a time vortex, or is it not 2015?'
Eventually I learned that LUG friends completely ignore what your
expressed hardware needs are, and burble out a recommendation of what
they're familiar with, as ticking off their own wishlist criteria and
not yours were what you asked. LUG friends; Can't take them anywhere,
and throwing large buckets of icewater on them is frowned upon. ;->
So, I started re-researching modern hardware, having last been paid to
be expert in Linux hardware support (at Cadence Design Systems) in 2008.
And a lot has changed.
The Raspberry Pi 2 model B came out and one of the same friends said
'You should use one of those!' And I said '1GB RAM is better by 2x than
before, but still cruddy I/O. Surely better exists.'
And in the process of researching, I found disconcerting facts about
Linux on ARM, and read Nathan Willis's
LWN.net write-up about Stephen Arnold's SCALE talk, which reinforced that:
https://lwn.net/Articles/635289/
o Every bloody ARM device requires out-of-tree kernel patches
that aren't necessarily very current at all and may introduce severe
pecuilarities and/or lingering security holes. You simply _cannot_, for
example, just run the Debian Jessie 'armhf' ('hf'= hard float) standard
image, because there's no such thing as a standard armhf kernel that
runs generically on armhf CPUs. Every blessed one requires a forked
kernel that may never be merged and always be in danger of being
orphaned.
(Needless to say, I am unenthusiastic about running a high-security
infrastructure computer that, e.g., security-scans my inside LAN, on
hardware whose CPU may have unfixed Linux kernel hole for long periods
of time.)
o Every bloody ARM device requires boot solutions with some bespoke and
idiosyncratic bits.
o Every bloody ARM device binary-only, proprietary BLOBs if you care
about X11 (obviously not router-only devices, etc.). Open source X11,
if available, is usually quite old and worsens the kernel problem.
o Every bloody ARM device has other one-off bits of weirdness often
involving the sort of secret-sauce obsession that pervades embedded
computing.
Willis's LWN.net piece has detail on the above points.
I kept searching, and thought, 'What possibilities beckon if I relax the
requirement for ultra-thrifty mains use by 10W or so?' Which was
exactly when I discovered the portion of the SFF (small form factor) PC
market AMD has rightfully owned for the last few years with amazingly
powerful, amazingly power-thrifty, quiet SoCs on tiny mini-ITX
motherboards in quiet, small cases. And 32GB RAM limits. And great
open source everything with bog-standard x86_64 distros.
No, they doubtless don't quite suffice as good gamer boxes, the heft
required for that role being -- as you acknowledge -- a specialty need
that is very demanding.
But the hardware category is called HTPC (home theatre PC), because
these little things manage with aplomb to be quiet, unobtrusive Kodi
(formerly xbmc) home-entertainment video boxes running in people's
living rooms and bedrooms. Both on MS-Windows and Linux. And they're
not slow. Not even the one I mentioned with the fanless SoC. Read, in
particular, the Newegg.com customer reviews of the ASROck / AMD A4-5000
'Kabini' SoC combo. Some very picky customers have nice things to say,
even the Windows users who characteristically think ridiculously
high-performance CPUs are mandatory.
I'm surprised that machines like that haven't been stampeded by Linux
users. Seems to me, they're exceptional for a very large range of uses
outside the data centre.
And that they leave typical Intel-based offerings in the same segment of
the market in the dust. For less money.
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