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Meta is using the Linux scheduler designed for Valve's Steam Deck on its servers

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Re: Meta is using the Linux scheduler designed for Valve's Steam Deck on its servers

#11

Post by ZeroCool2u »

mikkupikku wrote: post #3

> SCX-LAVD has been worked on by Linux consulting firm Igalia under contract for Valve It seems like every time I read about this kind of stuff, it's being done by contractors. I think Proton is similar. Of course that makes it no less awesome, but it makes me wonder about the contractor to employee ratio at Valve. Do they pretty much stick to Steam/game development and contract out most of the rest?

Igalia is a bit unique as it serves as a single corporate entity for organizing a lot of sponsored work on the Linux kernel and open source projects. You'll notice in their blog posts they have collaborations with a number of other large companies seeking to sponsor very specific development work. For example, Google works with them a lot. I think it really just simplifies a lot of logistics for paying folks to do this kind of work, plus the Igalia employees can get shared efficiency's and savings for things like benefits etc.

Re: Meta is using the Linux scheduler designed for Valve's Steam Deck on its servers

#12

Post by accelbred »

bigyabai wrote: post #8
kstrauser wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm more surprised that the scheduler made for a handheld gaming console is also demonstrably good for Facebook's servers.

I mean, part of it is that Linux's default scheduler is braindead by modern standards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Completely_Fair_Scheduler

CFS was replaced by EEVDF, no?

Re: Meta is using the Linux scheduler designed for Valve's Steam Deck on its servers

#13

Post by everfrustrated »

mikkupikku wrote: post #3

> SCX-LAVD has been worked on by Linux consulting firm Igalia under contract for Valve It seems like every time I read about this kind of stuff, it's being done by contractors. I think Proton is similar. Of course that makes it no less awesome, but it makes me wonder about the contractor to employee ratio at Valve. Do they pretty much stick to Steam/game development and contract out most of the rest?

Valve is known to keep their employee count as low as possible. I would guess anything that can reasonably be contracted out is.

That said, something like this which is a fixed project, highly technical and requires a lot of domain expertise would make sense for _anybody_ to contract out.

Re: Meta is using the Linux scheduler designed for Valve's Steam Deck on its servers

#14

Post by mindcrash »

mikkupikku wrote: post #3

> SCX-LAVD has been worked on by Linux consulting firm Igalia under contract for Valve It seems like every time I read about this kind of stuff, it's being done by contractors. I think Proton is similar. Of course that makes it no less awesome, but it makes me wonder about the contractor to employee ratio at Valve. Do they pretty much stick to Steam/game development and contract out most of the rest?

Proton is mainly a co-effort between in-house developers at Valve (with support on specific parts from contractors like Igalia), developers at CodeWeavers and the wider community.

For contextual, super specific, super specialized work (e.g. SCX-LAVD, the DirectX-to-Vulkan and OpenGL-to-Vulkan translation layers in Proton, and most of the graphics driver work required to make games run on the upcoming ARM based Steam Frame) they like to subcontract work to orgs like Igalia but that's about it.

Re: Meta is using the Linux scheduler designed for Valve's Steam Deck on its servers

#15

Post by wildzzz »

mikkupikku wrote: post #3

> SCX-LAVD has been worked on by Linux consulting firm Igalia under contract for Valve It seems like every time I read about this kind of stuff, it's being done by contractors. I think Proton is similar. Of course that makes it no less awesome, but it makes me wonder about the contractor to employee ratio at Valve. Do they pretty much stick to Steam/game development and contract out most of the rest?

It would be a large effort to stand up a department that solely focuses on Linux development just like it would be to shift game developers to writing Linux code. Much easier to just pay a company to do the hard stuff for you. I'm sure the steam deck hardware was the same, Valve did the overall design and requirements but another company did the actual hardware development.

Re: Meta is using the Linux scheduler designed for Valve's Steam Deck on its servers

#16

Post by phdelightful »

accelbred wrote: post #12
bigyabai wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, part of it is that Linux's default scheduler is braindead by modern standards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Completely_Fair_Scheduler

CFS was replaced by EEVDF, no?

Parent's article says

> Starting from version 6.6 of the Linux kernel, [CFS] was replaced by the EEVDF scheduler.[citation needed]

Re: Meta is using the Linux scheduler designed for Valve's Steam Deck on its servers

#17

Post by Fiveplus »

Valve is practically singlehandedly dragging the Linux ecosystem forward in areas that nobody else wanted to touch.

They needed Windows games to run on Linux so we got massive Proton/Wine advancements. They needed better display output for the deck and we got HDR and VRR support in wayland. They also needed smoother frame pacing and we got a scheduler that Zuck is now using to run data centers.

Its funny to think that Meta's server efficiency is being improved because Valve paid Igalia to make Elden Ring stutter less on a portable Linux PC. This is the best kind of open source trickledown.

Re: Meta is using the Linux scheduler designed for Valve's Steam Deck on its servers

#20

Post by TZubiri »

hoppyhoppy2 wrote: post #19
alecco wrote: post #18

[flagged]

Generated comments are not allowed on HN.

I feel the intent of these rules are to forbid undisclosed aigen comments.

If you ban disclosed usage of AIgen, you will get covert usage of AIgen

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