Microsoft Windows Server Benchmarked Against Six Linux Distributions

While it was not too long ago that Microsoft Windows Server 2019 began shipping and that we conducted some end-of-year benchmarks between Windows and Linux, with being in the process of running a number of Windows and Linux benchmarks as part of our ongoing 10GbE OS performance testing, I also took the opportunity to run some other benchmarks on Windows Server 2016 and 2019 as well as a set of Linux distributions. With carrying out the fresh OS installations anyways for the network testing, with recently having brought over some more Phoronix Test Suite test profiles with Windows support, I decided to run some fresh Windows Server vs. Linux benchmarks anyways. Granted, not all of the tests are server-oriented and not all of the traditional Linux server distributions were used. Just take this as you wish of some fresh Windows vs. Linux performance benchmarks.

Games: Lutris, Little Mouse's Encyclopedia, Team Fortress 2 and More

• Lutris has a third beta available for the big 0.5.0 release

  Lutris, the rather good game manager to bundle your games together from various sources has a fresh beta out.

• Little Mouse's Encyclopedia, an interactive encyclopedia to enjoy with your kids will support Linux

  Little Mouse's Encyclopedia is a new discovery from developer Circus Atos, this cute interactive encyclopedia looks like a fun experience for this with kids.

• Team Fortress 2 update released to improve memory use on Linux, new charity event in May

  Valve are keeping Team Fortress 2 [Steam] alive for Linux gamers with the latest update making some welcome improvements. There's also going to be a TF2 charity event in May. First, to go over the few changes in the latest release. For Linux gamers, it should be a nicer experience now as they've improved the memory usage on Linux.

• The "Heskel's House of Horrors" update for Ion Maiden is out now

  This was quite a surprise to wake up to today, the in-development FPS Ion Maiden from Voidpoint and 3D Realms just got a pretty sweet update. Heskel's House of Horrors is the name and killing is very much the game. This update adds in a whole new level to explore along with some other new features. One such new feature, is a secondary fire mode to make the combat that little bit more interesting. I have to say, the Crossbow is a thing of beauty, especially the alternate fire mode where you hold the button down to fire multiple shots together!

• The Humble Caffeine Bundle is out with some top Linux games included

  Didn't expect this! The Humble Caffeine Bundle is officially out today and it has multiple great Linux games included.

• Valve's card game Artifact seems to be dying off and fairly quickly too

  It will be very interesting to see what Valve have up their sleeve for this one, as their card game Artifact seems to be dying. How does the saying go? You only get one chance to make a first impression. Well, Valve made a number of missteps with the release and so not many will come back to it. When you consider the fact that in 2018 over nine thousand games released on Steam there's a ridiculous amount of competition for everyone and Valve aren't above that.

Roundup of Wine 4.0 Release Coverage

• Wine 4.0 Released

  The Wine team is proud to announce that the stable release Wine 4.0 is now available.

• Wine 4.0 Officially Released with Vulkan & Direct3D 12 Support, HiDPI on Android

  The Wine project proudly announced today the general availability of the Wine 4.0 release, a major version of the open-source software that lets Linux and macOS users install and use Windows apps on their computers. Wine 4.0 comes about a year after the Wine 3.0 release, which was the first to introduce an Android driver to allow users run Windows apps and games on devices powered by Google's Android mobile OS, Direct3D 11 support by default for AMD Radeon and Intel GPUs, a task scheduler, as well as AES encryption support on macOS. With Wine 4.0, the team continues to improve the free and open-source compatibility layer that allows Windows program to run on Linux and Mac computers, adding new features like support for the next-generation Vulkan graphics API, Direct3D 12 support, HiDPI (High-DPI) support on Android, and support for game controllers.

• Wine 4.0 Released With New Features: Run Windows Apps On Linux Efficiently

  With Microsoft’s initiative to bring Linux Bash Shell on Windows 10, the Windows users are now able to run their favorite Linux tools on their current operating system. But what if you need to run full-fledged Windows apps and games on a Linux distro? In that case, a software like Wine is really helpful. The developers of this utility have recently released the new version, i.e., 4.0, with lots of features. Wine 4.0 is the result of a year of development effort.

• Wine 4.0 Released With Vulkan Support, Initial Direct3D 12 Support, CSMT Enabled By Default

  After being in development for a year, Wine 4.0 is now available for download. The new stable Wine release includes important changes like support for Vulkan, Direct3D 12 and game controllers. For those that might not be familiar with it, Wine is a Windows compatibility layer for Linux that lets you run Windows applications and games on Linux, macOS, and Android (experimental). Wine is used by Proton, Valve's Steam Play compatibility layer that allows playing Windows games on Linux, and by CrossOver, a commercial Microsoft Windows compatibility layer for macOS and Linux, among others.

• Wine 4.0 is Here with Significant New Features

  Not everyone prefers to use Wine. But, if you have a favorite app/service that is not yet available for Linux, you can try Wine in order to run Windows apps or games. For those who are not aware of Wine, it’s a software that lets you run Windows-only applications and games on Linux. Want iTune on Linux, Wine is your best bet.

• Wine 4.0 Released With Vulkan Support, Initial Direct3D 12 and Better HiDPI

• Wine 4.0 Officially Released With Vulkan Support, Initial Direct3D 12 & Better HiDPI

  Wine 4.0 is now officially available as the new annual stable release to Wine for running Windows programs and games on Linux and other operating systems. Following seven weekly release candidates, Wine 4.0 was ready to ship today as judged by Wine founder Alexandre Julliard. Wine 4.0 is a big release bringing initial Vulkan graphics API support, Direct3D CSMT is enabled by default, early Direct3D 12 support via VKD3D, continued HiDPI work, various OpenGL improvements, multi-sample D3D texture support, 64-bit improvements, continued Android support, and much more... See our Wine 4.0 feature overview to learn more about this big update.

• Just over a year after the last main release, Wine 4.0 is officially here

  You might want to grab a glass for this one, no not that dusty old thing, one of the nice ones. The ones at the back of the cupboard for special occasions! Wine 4.0 is officially here. Comparing Wine 3.0 to 4.0, naturally it's a pretty huge release. Although, most people have likely been using the development builds for some time.

today's howtos

• For the Love of Pipes

  My top used shell command is |. This is called a pipe.

  In brief, the | allows for the output of one program (on the left) to become the input of another program (on the right). It is a way of connecting two commands together.

• How to use the tmux multiplexer for a more efficient Linux terminal

  The tmux tool does a lot of things, but what it does best is turn a single terminal into a multi-pane tool, where you can take care of more than one task at a time. With tmux in play, you don't need to SSH into that same machine multiple times, you can remote in once, split your terminal into panes, and get to work.

• High Availability Pacemaker Cluster Logging

• How to build LibreOffice Android Viewer on Linux

• How to install Inkscape Alpha 1 on Ubuntu 18.04

• How to Use Shutdown Command in Linux

• How to Set JAVA_HOME Path in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

• How to Install Vanilla Forum on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

• How to Disable Firewall on Ubuntu 18.04

• How HTTPS Works? — Beginner’s Guide