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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

#191

Post by gf000 »

pbh101 wrote: post #71
pmontra wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sleep and hibernate don't just work on Windows unless Microsoft work with laptop and boards manufacturers to make Windows play nice with all those drivers. It's inevitable that it's hit and miss on any other OS that manufacturers don't care much about. Apple does nearly everything inside their walls, that's why it just works.

Regardless of how it must be implemented, if this is a desirable feature then this explanation isn’t an absolution of Linux but rather an indictment: its development model cannot consistently provide this product feature. (And same for Windows to the degree it is more inconsistent on Windows than Mac)

The feature itself works. There are just hardware that is buggy and don't support it properly.

That's a vastly different statement.

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

#192

Post by mikkupikku »

dangus wrote: post #182
IshKebab wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and Linux is waaay behind in other areas. Windows had a secure attention sequence (ctrl-alt-del to login) for several decades now. Linux still doesn't.

Is that something Linux needs? I don’t really understand the benefit of it.

It made a lot more sense in the bygone years of users casually downloading and running exe's to get more AIM "smilies", or putting in a floppy disk or CD and having the system autoexec whatever malware the last user of that disk had. It was the expected norm for everybody's computer to be an absolute mess.

These days, things have gotten far more reasonable, and I think we can generally expect a linux desktop user to only run software from trusted sources. In this context, such a feature makes much less sense.

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

#193

Post by jhasse »

ahepp wrote: post #183
baq wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I low key hope the current DDR5 prices push them to drag the Linux memory and swap management into the 21st century, too, because hard locking on low memory got old a while ago

what behavior would you like to see when primary memory is under extreme pressure?

Same as Windows. Instead the system freezes.

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

#194

Post by ndiddy »

pantalaimon wrote: post #177
wmf wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was surprised to hear that Windows just added native NVMe which Linux has had for many years. I wonder if Azure has been paying the SCSI emulation tax this whole time.

Afaik Azure is mostly Linux

The user VMs are mostly Linux but Azure itself runs on a stripped down version of Windows Server and all the VMs are hosted inside Hyper-V. See https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windowsosplatform/a...

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

#195

Post by ethbr1 »

b00ty4breakfast wrote: post #135
asveikau wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was at Microsoft during the Windows 8 cycle. I remember hearing about a kernel feature I found interesting. Then I found linux had it for a few years at the time. I think the reality is that Linux is ahead on a lot of kernel stuff. More experimentation is happening.

when the hood is open for anyone to tinker, lots of little weirdos get to indulge their ideas. Sometimes those are ideas are even good!

Never underestimate the efficiency and amazing results of autistic focus.

"Now that's curious..."

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

#196

Post by ttctciyf »

IshKebab wrote: post #157
asveikau wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was at Microsoft during the Windows 8 cycle. I remember hearing about a kernel feature I found interesting. Then I found linux had it for a few years at the time. I think the reality is that Linux is ahead on a lot of kernel stuff. More experimentation is happening.

Yeah and Linux is waaay behind in other areas. Windows had a secure attention sequence (ctrl-alt-del to login) for several decades now. Linux still doesn't.

Well, there is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key

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

#197

Post by cosmic_cheese »

Fiveplus wrote: post #17

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 tha…

One would've expected one of the many desktop-oriented distros (some with considerable funding, even) to have tackled these things already, but somehow desktop Linux has been stuck in the awkward midway of "it technically works, just learn to live with the rough edges" until finally Valve took initiative. Go figure.

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

#198

Post by TeMPOraL »

roblabla wrote: post #178
IshKebab wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and Linux is waaay behind in other areas. Windows had a secure attention sequence (ctrl-alt-del to login) for several decades now. Linux still doesn't.

Linux (well, more accurately, X11), has had a SAK for ages now, in the form of the CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE that immediately kills X11, booting you back to the login screen. I personally doubt SAK/SAS is a good security measure anyways. If you've got untrusted programs running on your machine, you're probably already pwn'd.

The "threat model" (if anyone even called it that) of applications back then was bugs resulting in unintended spin-locks, and the user not realizing they're critically short on RAM or disk space.

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

#199

Post by ethbr1 »

dangus wrote: post #182
IshKebab wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and Linux is waaay behind in other areas. Windows had a secure attention sequence (ctrl-alt-del to login) for several decades now. Linux still doesn't.

Is that something Linux needs? I don’t really understand the benefit of it.

The more powerful form is the UAC full privilege escalation dance that Win 7+(?) does, which is a surprisingly elegant UX solution.

   1. Snapshot the desktop
   2. Switch to a separate secure UI session
   3. Display the snapshot in the background, greyed out, with the UAC prompt running in the current session and topmost
It avoids any chance of a user-space program faking or interacting with a UAC window.

Clever way of dealing with the train wreck of legacy Windows user/program permissioning.

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

#200

Post by raverbashing »

Fiveplus wrote: post #17

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 tha…

Let's be honest

Linux (and its ecosystem) sucks at having focus and direction.

They might get something right here and there, especially related to servers, but they are awful at not spinning wheels

See how wayland progress is slow. See how some distros moved to it only after a lot of kicking and screaming.

See how a lot of peripherals in "newer" (sometimes a model that's 2 or 3 yrs on the market) only barely works in a newer distro. Or has weird bugs

"but the manufacturers..." "but the hw producers..." "but open source..." whine

Because Linux lacks a good hierarchy at isolating responsibility, otherwise going for a "every kernel driver can do all it wants" together with "interfaces that keep flipping and flopping at every new kernel release" - notable (good) exception : USB userspace drivers. And don't even get me started on the whole mess that is xorg drivers

And then you have a Ruby Goldberg machine in form of udev dbus and what not, or whatever newer solution that solves half the problems and create another new collection of bugs.

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