Today marks 22 years since I started Phoronix.com to focus on Linux hardware reviews. It's been quite a journey from the early state of Linux hardware support...
Starting out in the early days of being dismissed by OEMs/ODMs for not actively pursuing Linux reviews / customer interest and most hardware support having at least some defects under Linux or where basic peripherals weren't guaranteed to work under Linux. Now in more recent years, Valve with their Steam Deck and Steam Play revolutionizing the Linux gaming space and driving immense popularity. And in the data center / HPC, Linux is absolutely dominant and totally crushing it in the AI space. Granted, there still hasn't been quite the "year of the Linux desktop" for the masses and the Steam on Linux marketshare is in the 4~5%, but in covering the Linux hardware space closely on a daily basis for the past 22+ years, it's a hell of a lot better than before. Beyond the Linux support being better, corporate interest and in part driven by customer demand is totally different now in more recent years. Or how security concerns and other modern hyperscale needs are driving open-source firmware demands and creations like OpenBMC, LVFS/Fwupd driving firmware updating under Linux, AMD developing openSIL and coming back to Coreboot support, and so many other great achievements these days.
The open-source driver scene has been fascinating over the past 22 years too, especially on the GPU driver side. Originally ATI/AMD graphics were notorious on Linux when Phoronix started due to their "fglrx" driver but then since the advent of their open-source initiative and building up of support over the years, it's a radically different space for AMD Radeon graphics with it being widely-praised these days on Linux. NVIDIA meanwhile continues embracing their out-of-tree driver stack but in more recent years developed their open-source kernel driver. They are also doing interesting things with the Nova upstream driver too.... And then Arm and many of the smaller embedded/SoC graphics vendors also engaging to varying degrees on upstream open-source driver support. Even Imagination Tech with their modern PowerVR driver stack as another notorious hardware vendor in the early days of Phoronix.
The last time there was an entire day without any new, original content on Phoronix was back on September 26, 2012... Nearly 14 years ago. So it's been a wild ride over the past 22 years. I remain passionate about Linux hardware and benchmarking but, sadly, can't say it's been too lucrative or easy. There were more contributors to Phoronix in the early years but the economics, unfortunately, haven't worked out. More than half of Phoronix readers continue to engage ad-blockers when engaging the site. And being a one-man-band relying on ad networks with no major vendors offering direct ad buys, ad rates continue to become only more depressing in each passing year while competing with corporate ad spends on social networks and the like, along with Windows review sites. And the Windows-oriented "mainstream" sites that will quickly post new articles following any Phoronix reports on new Linux hardware bits and the like, but not always linking back and just making my day-to-day environment more challenging. And then the challenges that fall on to me for resisting "sponsored articles" and the like but always eager to engage in new Linux hardware testing if provided the hardware. or other opportunities dismissed at trying to stay true to my Linux hardware testing interests. Or especially in the past year, the time spent mitigating AI/LLM bot traffic hammering the site.
Beyond more than half the readers engaging ad-blockers, less than 0.5% of Phoronix readers make use of
So at the end of the day it's unfortunately been another tough year albeit I personally remain passionate to Linux hardware. Granted, my wife feels very differently on the matter.
Thanks for your support and here's to hopefully another year of Linux hardware testing and benchmarking.
Starting out in the early days of being dismissed by OEMs/ODMs for not actively pursuing Linux reviews / customer interest and most hardware support having at least some defects under Linux or where basic peripherals weren't guaranteed to work under Linux. Now in more recent years, Valve with their Steam Deck and Steam Play revolutionizing the Linux gaming space and driving immense popularity. And in the data center / HPC, Linux is absolutely dominant and totally crushing it in the AI space. Granted, there still hasn't been quite the "year of the Linux desktop" for the masses and the Steam on Linux marketshare is in the 4~5%, but in covering the Linux hardware space closely on a daily basis for the past 22+ years, it's a hell of a lot better than before. Beyond the Linux support being better, corporate interest and in part driven by customer demand is totally different now in more recent years. Or how security concerns and other modern hyperscale needs are driving open-source firmware demands and creations like OpenBMC, LVFS/Fwupd driving firmware updating under Linux, AMD developing openSIL and coming back to Coreboot support, and so many other great achievements these days.
The open-source driver scene has been fascinating over the past 22 years too, especially on the GPU driver side. Originally ATI/AMD graphics were notorious on Linux when Phoronix started due to their "fglrx" driver but then since the advent of their open-source initiative and building up of support over the years, it's a radically different space for AMD Radeon graphics with it being widely-praised these days on Linux. NVIDIA meanwhile continues embracing their out-of-tree driver stack but in more recent years developed their open-source kernel driver. They are also doing interesting things with the Nova upstream driver too.... And then Arm and many of the smaller embedded/SoC graphics vendors also engaging to varying degrees on upstream open-source driver support. Even Imagination Tech with their modern PowerVR driver stack as another notorious hardware vendor in the early days of Phoronix.
The last time there was an entire day without any new, original content on Phoronix was back on September 26, 2012... Nearly 14 years ago. So it's been a wild ride over the past 22 years. I remain passionate about Linux hardware and benchmarking but, sadly, can't say it's been too lucrative or easy. There were more contributors to Phoronix in the early years but the economics, unfortunately, haven't worked out. More than half of Phoronix readers continue to engage ad-blockers when engaging the site. And being a one-man-band relying on ad networks with no major vendors offering direct ad buys, ad rates continue to become only more depressing in each passing year while competing with corporate ad spends on social networks and the like, along with Windows review sites. And the Windows-oriented "mainstream" sites that will quickly post new articles following any Phoronix reports on new Linux hardware bits and the like, but not always linking back and just making my day-to-day environment more challenging. And then the challenges that fall on to me for resisting "sponsored articles" and the like but always eager to engage in new Linux hardware testing if provided the hardware. or other opportunities dismissed at trying to stay true to my Linux hardware testing interests. Or especially in the past year, the time spent mitigating AI/LLM bot traffic hammering the site.
Beyond more than half the readers engaging ad-blockers, less than 0.5% of Phoronix readers make use of
Phoronix Premiumfor enjoying the site ad-free, multi-page articles on a single page, native dark mode, and other benefits.So at the end of the day it's unfortunately been another tough year albeit I personally remain passionate to Linux hardware. Granted, my wife feels very differently on the matter.
This 22nd birthday of Phoronix if you would like to show your support, you can do so by disabling your ad-blocker or as part of the Phoronix birthday occasion there is also a. Check out that article for the discounted rates and details on going premium with a significant discount. Or if you'd like,Phoronix Premium 22nd birthday special****tips via are most graciously accepted and ultimately used for hardware purchases where needed and related expenses for ongoing Linux performance benchmarking.PayPalandStripeThanks for your support and here's to hopefully another year of Linux hardware testing and benchmarking.