Reports: NVIDIA Launching a Distro of Its Own (phoronix.com)

An anonymous reader writes: There are unconfirmed reports that NVIDIA is working on its own Linux distribution dubbed "NLINUX." This NLINUX is supposedly a Linux platform optimized for gamers and similar to SteamOS, but NVIDIA has yet to confirm these reports and the sole evidence appears to be a circulating screenshot of an NLINUX install screen. Would you be interested in a Linux distribution created by an IHV? Somewhat similar is Intel's own Linux distribution, Clear Linux, that offers high performance Linux on Intel x86_64 hardware.

Comments

Would I be interested in nvidia's version of Linux

[Idimmu Xul]

No, id quite like a steambox though

Re:It's a hoax

[gQuigs]

Even better

Re:Interested in Nvidia's version of Linux

[elrous0]

Thanks for keeping us posted on what you're not interested in.

Depends on the Licensing

[Anonymous Coward]

If they'll contribute upstream and make whatever they're doing available to people like SteamOS, Debian, and RedHat, I'm absolutely in favor of this!

Hardware vendors should contribute code liberally to the linux kernel source. If all they're doing is a custom debian variant that they can control package versions on to make their drivers look better than they are, then I'll pass.

Specific and Custom Linux

[Master Moose]

If something is coded to be optimised for specific hardware - good on them.

So long as all code, components, drivers etc remain fully open - and are available to the wider linux community I say go for it.

Re:Specific and Custom Linux

[DrJimbo]

You do understand, don't you, that nVidia has never provided OSS drivers for Linux? Their Linux drivers are nothing more than binary blobs that you can only install by booting into a CLI, then rebooting after the installation is complete.

About 10 or 12 years ago I had a Dell laptop that had Nvidia graphics. I was running Gentoo Linux. I reported some bug with the Nvidia driver. Within hours late Saturday, early Sunday I got a reply from Nvidia with a patch to the MM kernel that fixed the problem. The bug was not in the Nvidia driver but was caused by recent change in the MM kernel. I was very impressed. In this case they were acting like an FOSS shop not a proprietary software shop.

I grant you the closed portions of the Nvidia drivers can be a royal pain in the neck, especially when combined with the closed Flash player. There were times when it was maddening but that was partly driven by an obsession by some Gentoo devs to be overly zealous with purging versions of the Nvidia driver from the portage system. Things have been mostly stable for a good number of years now.

I appreciate the Linux support Nvidia does provide. For example, I've been using VDPAU which does video decoding on the graphics card which let me play blu-rays on a machine with a not so powerful CPU. Also, I've never had to reboot in order to update the Nvidia driver. I do have to rmmod the old driver after I stop X but that's no biggie. YMMVG

I am interested in seeing the Nvidia distro if they release one but I'm not holding my breath.

Re:Specific and Custom Linux

[bloodhawk]

That is amusing I had a similar issue about 10 years ago with the Linux driver and one of their new cards. I reported the details of the bug, how to recreate it etc. What I got back was basically an insult of bad luck we don't really offer any support, "either take what is to offer or go with one of the competitors (HaHa)", The HaHa part was actually part of the response as at the time no one came close to matching Nvidia performance so there was no real option.

A few months later AMD came out with some competitive offerings I immediately went about removing Nvidia from all future orders we made for our enterprise for both windows and Linux and of course any personal purchases even when it meant I got less performance. The total disregard for a loyal customer at the time was more than I could stomach or forgive and I have not purchased a single Nvidia based system where I had any say in the specs since. I like to think I have cost them a pretty penny, or at least the prick that responded to me at the time has cost them a pretty penny, realistically it probably no more than 100k desktops but still I like to think that that is 100k desktops of revenue AMD has that they don't.

Re:Specific and Custom Linux

[KGIII]

You've been responsible for 100,000 desktop system purchases? Note: That is not doubt, I've seen you post before and have absolutely no reason to doubt you, but it is me trying to make sure I understand completely.

I thought that I might hold some sort of record in that area. I do not. If I had to guess, I'd say that I'm in the 2 to 3k region. However, it was either my company or a purchase that was gifted. For example, I keep a local elementary school's system stocked - I adopted them when I retired to the area. I refresh every couple of years and let them keep the old ones. (They've only got 56 students, a small staff, and a single IT staff.)

100,000? I am duly impressed. I've bought servers, routers, load balancing equipment, HVAC gear, switches and hubs and even hardware firewalls. I've filled racks, I've filled entire server rooms, and even purchased giant disk arrays. Hell, I've even helped run fiber but mostly did the chasing. I've done a couple of splices but that's really not something I'm going to say I know how to do - I was aided in doing so.

Oddly, I don't really use any Apple products but I guess I can probably still say that I have *personally* purchased more iDevices than anyone here, with the caveat that it was with my own money. (The school's rather fond of Apple gear and I understand why and agree with their choices. If you're unfamiliar with it, Apple actually gives a pretty good discount for school purchases.)

But, back to the point... So that I'm sure I understand correctly, you mean 100,000 desktops have been purchased at your discretion? Remind me to *not* invest in a company that has pissed you off. Ripple effects on that kind of purchase power are immense. People like you need to fill out some good, thorough, surveys so that someone can crunch that data. InfoWorld and eWeek used to have some survey results and they used to make sure I got their whitepapers. I haven't seen anything like that in years. Years and years.

Which leads to my real question... So... (This is me buttering you up.) Umm... You being all-powerful, master and commander, and knowing of all things - both good and evil... I don't suppose you know what happened to those whitepapers that said what the industry leaders where buying and why? Specifically for end-user gear would be my desire. It's time to prepare to refresh the school soon. I'll do it over this coming summer and I've not been paying enough attention. I've been leaning towards whatever iDevice gets recommended to me by the IT guy but I'm open to suggestions and able to greatly influence what he's interested in. He's not chained to Apple but Apple's the district's standard - sort of. They hook kids up with laptops in middle school. This is the elementary school. We do what we want. (And the district doesn't mind, they love that I help the kids out.)

So, got any good links where I can find the latest opinions on enterprise grade from actual people in the trenches and a history of making purchases? I have, indeed, searched Google a bunch of times. I've not really found anything good and trustworthy. Half the papers are vendor "sponsored" crap and the other half are flawed by asking stupid questions to stupid people. At least those are what I've found.

Hmm... How else can I appeal to your good, kind, soul? Oh! Ha! It's for the children. It really is, think of the children. Better, think of the poor single IT staffer (just one - and he's not always able to be on-site) and the work he'll have to go through. I've considered an AskSlashdot but, I gotta be honest here, I've *seen* the results to those. If it matters, I still have a CDW account and they were still pretty unbiased/good the last time I went through them. If it's not Apple, I'll almost certainly go through them again but I've actually considered NewEgg.

Sorry for the novella but I figured I'd ask - seeing as you do appear to be a preeminent expert on the subject. (Not sarcasm. You don't get to those kind of numbers without knowing your shit.) Hell, that last part isn't even meant to butter you up. ;-) If you've got any direction - I'd love to know. I'd go so far as to tell the kids that they can "thank Mr. Bloodhawk" but I think that the moniker might not go over well.

Custom distro

[manu0601]

So we have a custom Intel distro to have better Intel support and a custom Nvidia distro to have a better Nvidia support.

What about if I have a system with Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU and I want to get better support for both?

Just a screenshot?

[omnichad]

With just that screenshot to go on, my first guess is a GUI-based driver installer, not a full blown distribution.

Will they supply source code for the drivers?

[Anonymous Coward]

This could be a boon for them if they are actually willing to open source the driver code for the platform in addition to whatever GPL'd code they are required to post. I'm guessing this OS will be free to use but costly to license if you want a peek at the driver source code. Count me as pleasantly surprised if this distro is fully open.

In house testing version. So what.

[BlueCoder]

I tend to think it's just made up. But even if it isn't then it is more than likely their own in house beta testing version.

Just be grateful it's not FreeBSD which they they could totally embrace and not have to release any code for.

But everyone needs to get it through their heads that the true future of gaming is not OS bound. The need to instead concentrate on visualized GPU infrastructure. Games will run in VM's in a client game OS. More than likely nVidia wants it's own so it's not dependent on Steam as well as allowing them to have their own store and builtin DRM. They are just playing with their own platform.

Microkernel VM, Multiple windows version, SteamOS. nVidia OS, and multiple Linux systems and entire visualized applets.

On an aside I am actually more surprised that VMWare hasn't tried to team up with AMD. AMD could create specialized CPU extensions that speed up Virtualization and before you know it VMWare could supplant Microsoft as the default software loaded on all systems by default. Microsoft might not be happy with $10-30 per computer but I think VMWare would jump at the billion dollar increase in revenue and increased name recognition.

Re:Would I be interested in nvidia's version of Li

[Wahakalaka]

I certainly would be if it could replace the malingering "games-only" Windows partition.

Hoax

[Tenebrousedge]

It's a hoax. I modded it down in Firehose and am pissed it made the front page. That screenshot is from some page on NVIDIA's site, with an edited header. This is a non-story, and it should be blatantly obvious by now they have no interest in Linux interop.

Re:Interested in Nvidia's version of Linux

[Captain Splendid]

Seems a pretty silly move to dismiss something without even knowing anything about it.

If it's good enough for the US Senate, then it's good enough for anybody.

Re:Interested in Nvidia's version of Linux

[KGIII]

Not that anyone asked but I'd boot it up in a VM and test it out. Not for any good reason but because I've done it to just about every distro out there at one point or another. I might as well do this one too. Why not?

So, yeah... I'll test it out but it's *really* unlikely to become my main distro. Why? Err... As I've said many times, I am not a gamer. The gaming market lost me when they promoted Fallout Tactics as both good and the spiritual descendant of Fallout and Fallout 2. I've not really gamed since then - I was pretty livid and I hold a grudge. Trust is hard built and even harder recovered.

I've wanted to play the new Fallouts. I guess one of them (maybe more) is more an FPS so I didn't play that. I just can't seem to figure out those newfangled joysticks with the extra sticks on 'em. (I'm old.) I did buy a game a few days ago. I've not even installed it. I bought some game called Wasteland something or other. Yeah, I was high at the time.

At any rate, I'm guessing that's what this distro would be geared at and thus it'd be unlikely to be my preference. So, I'm unlikely to turn it into my main distro or even use it as anything other than a VM test to say that I've at least tried it once. I do wonder if it'll be butchered like what Google has done with the Linux kernel or if it'll be easy to drop replacements in, compile one's kernel of choice, and if it will even be a Linux-in-spirit type of thing. I suspect that one will be able to do those things though they might try to make it more difficult than it need be.

Re:Interested in Nvidia's version of Linux

[Warma]

Did you actually just post to rant how little you care of the distro, because you turned your back on gaming after a single company betrayed you 15 years ago?

Re:It's a hoax

[Holi]

https://redeem.nvidia.com/