Recently mentioned at
Distrowatch, the current iteration (07/2011) of
StressLinux, a testing and benchmarking tool for system builders and hardware enthusiasts.
It's generally accepted that it is a good idea to test certain things before they are used. We generally test drive cars before we buy them and we try on clothes before purchasing them. Some people feel computers should be treated the same way, giving the operator the chance to see how the hardware will perform under heavy load. How fast can we write to the hard drive, how hot will the CPU or video card get, will the platform remain stable under stress? To answer these questions we have StressLinux, a small distribution based on openSUSE and designed to push your computer's limits. Carla Schroder wrote a helpful blog post on how to get started with StressLinux and she suggests some tests to try to find out how robust your hardware is.
Please note that this is a real "gearhead" distro, and is not for those of us who demand pretty GUIs or need a lot of hand holding.
The main screen looks like this:
So if you're not comfortable working in terminal mode this may not be the tool for you. But if you are (or you're willing to do a little independent self-education) this is a rather nice collection of utilities to have in your toolkit.
The Carla Schroder article mentioned by Distrowatch can be found
here. It gives you a good sampling of what you can expect from StressLinux along with some idea of what you need to bring to the table in order to use it. Nothing overwhelming - we
are geeks after all. And Photoshop is far more difficult IMO to get a handle on. However, some of the tools will require a little reading and study before you can use them effectively or understand the reported results if you haven't done much of this before.
Check it out. Free for the download. Like so many other things Linux.
