Intel Kills Clear Linux OS As Support Ends Without Warning (nerds.xyz) 75
BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: Intel has quietly pulled the plug on Clear Linux OS, officially ending support for the once-promising Linux distribution that it had backed for nearly a decade. Effective immediately, the company says it will no longer provide any updates, security patches, or maintenance for the operating system. In a final blow, the Clear Linux OS GitHub repository is now archived in read-only mode.
The move was announced with little fanfare, and for users still relying on Clear Linux OS, there's no sugarcoating it... you need to move on. Intel is urging everyone to migrate to an actively maintained Linux distribution as soon as possible to avoid running unpatched software. "Rest assured that Intel remains deeply invested in the Linux ecosystem, actively supporting and contributing to various open-source projects and Linux distributions to enable and optimize for Intel hardware," the company said in a statement. "A heartfelt thank you to every developer, user, and contributor who helped shape Clear Linux OS over the last 10 years. Your feedback and contributions have been invaluable."
The move was announced with little fanfare, and for users still relying on Clear Linux OS, there's no sugarcoating it... you need to move on. Intel is urging everyone to migrate to an actively maintained Linux distribution as soon as possible to avoid running unpatched software. "Rest assured that Intel remains deeply invested in the Linux ecosystem, actively supporting and contributing to various open-source projects and Linux distributions to enable and optimize for Intel hardware," the company said in a statement. "A heartfelt thank you to every developer, user, and contributor who helped shape Clear Linux OS over the last 10 years. Your feedback and contributions have been invaluable."
I just installed it! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sad now. That is all.
Does/did it have any special features? Why did you choose it?
Re:I just installed it! (Score:5, Informative)
Sure. Got a new PC last month to play with (simulations/computations). Thought I would try a Linux optimized for modern hardware, instead of trusty old Debian (which I normally use).
Clear Linux was attractive because it's stateless and container friendly, and the system libraries are (were!) tuned with high performance compiler flags.
I'm a user of math, so I care about BLAS, MKL, AVX instructions etc, not so much games and desktop bling.
I had literally just learned to use it and set it up with my favourite software configuration... Oh well:)
Re: (Score:2)
You probably know this already, so please don't take this as an insult if you do, but just in case: Rest assured you can probably port most or all of what you liked about the Clear Linux optimizations to any other distro fairly easily. Intel no doubt realized this too, and it was probably a key part of the decision to end their own distro. If the summary is to be believed, you may not even have to bother, because the relevant optimizations may be making their own way to your next favorite distro too..
Re: (Score:2)
Not an insult at all.
The issue of optimizations is difficult to solve globally, due to the large variation in hardware out there. A distro like Debian (hence all derivatives) or SUSE (etc) has the task of running unchanged on a lowest common denominator architecture. That prevents the binary packages from being compiled with full optimizations. Otherwise, there will be users who can't run the binaries.
The best solution is probably what Gentoo does, compiling everything on the box, but this is unacceptab
Re: (Score:2)
Gentoo is always an option. funroll forever!
Also in practice, most things aren't CPU bound. If you're doing any heavily computational stuff it's probably a relatively small number of packages which could be rebuilt.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I've been using Intel Clear Linux for a few years now. I was pretty happy with its constant stream of updates and optimized libraries. I used it for math and AI related compute. Pretty bummed they discontinued it. Not sure what distro I will have to use but I'm sure whatever I pick (minus Gentoo) will not be as performant.
You keep using that word. I don't think it means w (Score:2)
"Your feedback and contributions have been invaluable."
Were they invaluable? Now they are zero.
Re: You keep using that word. I don't think it mea (Score:2)
Re: You keep using that word. I don't think it mea (Score:5, Informative)
"Penultimate" isn't a synonym for "ultimate"—it means the thing before the ultimate. Likewise we have penumbra for the blurry edge of a shadow (umbra). This results in some truly special words like "antepenult," meaning "the thing before the thing before the final thing," commonly used when discussing where the stress/accent falls in a Greek or Latin word.
"Invaluable" does indeed mean "not able to be valued" when analyzed morphologically, but the standard usage of it is indicating something is beyond value, i.e. infinitely or inestimably valuable. A value of zero is still a value, after all.
"Inflammable" however actually means "able to be inflamed," as in "put in flame" or "set on fire." The confusion comes from assimilation of the Latin preposition "in" (which we have as "in" or "on") instead of the more typical prefix "in-" (which demarcates negation.) You don't have to look very far for other words where "in" doesn't mean "not": indicate, inherit, imply, investigate, indict, involve...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: You keep using that word. I don't think it mea (Score:4, Interesting)
English doesn't need confusing synonyms, we relish them!
It's a very mongrel language, based on a Germanic grammar, a large number of Norman French imported words, then we just started grabbing vocabulary from every available source. Also we spent about 600 years with educated people obsessing about the purity of Latin and trying to impose Latin rules on a Germanic language. There have repeatedly been attempts at imposing regularity, none have worked.
Funny things about genders though is they are in the middle of undergoing a shift and have noticably changed during my lifetime.
When in the 80s it used to be common (if a little old fashioned, in, day the 50s it was ubiquitous) to refer to groups or individuals as default masculine if unknown [*]. In the 80s you'd have sounded a bit fusty for doing that, but it was not uncommon. Now that's basically gone with neutral words being used instead, and you really sound like your making a point if you speak in the old way. The one that's currently in progress is words with gendered suffixes dropping out of use, like waitress and actress is becoming less common with waiter and actor becoming greener neutral terms.
That's one's ongoing, no one will look at you weird for saying waitress today, but it's a noticeable shift. I reckon in 20 years it'll sound weird and old fashioned.
Anyway, English has been slowly losing gender for about 900 years, it's interesting to see one bit being chipped away in real time rather than reading about it. I wonder what's next?
[*] Funnily enough "man" in old English is gender neutral person and the apparently gendered phrases like "mankind" derive from a non gendered root. At some point Wer for man vanished and man was coopted to mean, well, man. Wer remains only in "werewolf". So you shouldn't really have a female werewolf, it should be a wyfwolf. Anyhoo...
Re: (Score:2)
Technically it was "mann" in old English and is the basis for the modern term "human". We used to refer to men as "wer" and women were "wif" which is where we inherited "wife" from. Wermann was the old word for human male, wifmann the human female.
Some derivations have survived to modern times though. Werwulf is still very much werewolf, and now you know why you don't see female werewolves.
Language morphs a lot over the centuries, this isn't unique to English either. Give it a few years and people could car
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't understand why English needs both flammable and inflammable.
Because it does not mean the same.
Flammable basically means it can burn. Nearly everything can burn btw. ...
Inflammable means: it can super easy be set on fire. Like gasoline vapour. Or cooking gas mixed with air. Or alcohol in high concentration and so on
I get your language context ... I started Japanese again. As Thai is a bit to tough, no idea why. It is similar simple like Japanese but the tonal stuff is hard on me.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't understand why English needs both flammable and inflammable.
Because it does not mean the same.
As usual, you are wrong: https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]
Re: (Score:2)
No, the confusion comes from the fact that "inflammable" has a perfectly good synonym - flammable, which is
Re: (Score:2)
A value of zero is still a value, after all.
Do you want to know what happens to math when you start to introduce shit concepts like this?
Girl Math. Girl Math is what happens. And every annoying-as-fuck defense of it.
Lets not encourage that. The word value has value for a reason.
Re: (Score:2)
A value of zero is still a value, after all.
Do you want to know what happens to math when you start to introduce shit concepts like this?
Girl Math. Girl Math is what happens. And every annoying-as-fuck defense of it.
Lets not encourage that. The word value has value for a reason.
Do you mean postmodern critical theory math, which just attempts to destroy math, or do you mean "ho math" which is this weird delusional stuff where 80 percent of women find only a minuscule number of men qualify for them, https://www.femaledelusionalca... [femaledelu...ulator.com]
Re: You keep using that word. I don't think it me (Score:2)
I have no idea what your comment means. Penultimate is very common in English outside of American English. We use it to mean second last. The penultimate day of school. The penultimate move in a game. The penultimate seat on a bus. Etc.
Re: You keep using that word. I don't think it mea (Score:2)
Intel value is also falling, they cut costs and side projects to survive.
Share prices doesn't always reflect actual value.
Re: (Score:2)
"Your feedback and contributions have been invaluable."
Were they invaluable? Now they are zero.
Guessing pretty much everyone fired not-for-cause has heard that line and felt that.
Re: (Score:2)
Priceless and worthless at the same time. When is it one or the other?...well it depends. ;-)
I'd never heard of this distro, in truth (Score:2)
But still - I imagine they had a non-trivial number users who bought in just because of the Intel name. Poor saps.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You could run gentoo. heh heh. Or LFS, hahahaha.
You could build linux and libc with processor-specific flags.
You know this is not the first time Intel made an Intel-specific Linux and then abandoned it, right?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: I'd never heard of this distro, in truth (Score:2)
Couldn't you just, you know, fork off a new distribution from the sources and keep it going? I'm positive the users that are dependent on this very particular Linux distribution would happily donate their time and money to the cause...
Or just switch to Red Hat, or Ubuntu, or...
Re: (Score:2)
I'm positive the users that are dependent on this very particular Linux distribution would happily donate their time and money to the cause...
All three of them? (I would have said two, but we have one here.)
Or just switch to Red Hat, or Ubuntu, or...
Sure, or a good distribution.
Re: I'd never heard of this distro, in truth (Score:2)
That's cute, you think they had a non-trivial user base... how precious.
Re: (Score:2)
In truth hey? Never heard of it? You didn't comment on this story 3 times: https://linux.slashdot.org/sto... [slashdot.org]
Or do you just comment without ever reading what a story is about?
Re: (Score:2)
If you'd actually looked - two of those comments were about Pacific Northwest weather, and one was about SystemD. Obviously Clear Linux itself didn't register with me... and, given the current story, that's just as well.
Unsurprising (Score:2)
And nothing was lost? (Score:4, Informative)
I am pretty connected in the Linux news/user space. Everything I run at home, work, for friends, user group, etc for decades is Linux. Servers, desktops, laptops, appliances, virtualized, embedded, you name it. I have never seen *ANYONE* say they have used, had interest in, or have even seen Clear Linux in use anywhere.
I am guessing it didn't really have much impact.
Re: (Score:2)
I've never heard of it until now. Intel did a better job of killing it by supporting it. But then that's true of many things.
Re: (Score:2)
Really? Never heard of it? So you didn't post this comment https://linux.slashdot.org/com... [slashdot.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Probably, the question is can you find an example of me saying "I've never heard of it" or would you be more inclined to find me saying "I don't remember hearing about it" That's the problem with absolute language. The difference between forgetting something and declaring that you never experienced it in the first place are not the same. If anything this can be taken as a lesson on not declaring something to be absolutely true.
Also we've had plenty of other stores about Clear Linux, I'm sure PPH doesn't com
Re: (Score:2)
> absolute language
I agree, and have noticed it seems to be getting worse. Maybe I'm just noticing it more. Some guesses involve people trying to be more concise, like in texts, and the result is less clear communication. Maybe add in, for whatever reason, people being stronger in their beliefs, and then more emphatic. I dunno.
Re: And nothing was lost? (Score:2)
Apparently may /. readers have strong opinions about something they never heard of before the story was published - how odd...
Re: (Score:1)
I've been using Linux at home and work since 1999, supported clients with over a dozen distros back when I worked at a VAR... and I never heard of this one.
huh, so it came out in 2015.didn't last long eh. a passing fart in the wind
Re: (Score:2)
Clear Linux wasn't so much about being used. It was a demonstration of optimisation for Intel's hardware specifically. What made it into that distro helped make others better. You probably have "used" it and don't even know.
Re: And nothing was lost? (Score:3)
I used to work at a company involved in high performance computing (HPC). Squeezing every ounce of performance out of a system was de rigeur. While we didn't run Clear Linux, several of our clients did.
In addition, while we mostly focused on Fortran and had our own C/C++ compiler, we also supported Intel's C/C++ compiler which had all sorts of nice extensions for accessing instructions that regular compilers of the day would never generate without inline assembly.
Re: (Score:2)
Luckily these days gcc produces faster code than icc.
When I worked for an IC design company we used Sun's compiler for the same reason.
Re: (Score:2)
I used it
Re: (Score:2)
I am pretty connected in the Linux news/user space. Everything I run at home, work, for friends, user group, etc for decades is Linux. Servers, desktops, laptops, appliances, virtualized, embedded, you name it. I have never seen *ANYONE* say they have used, had interest in, or have even seen Clear Linux in use anywhere.
I am guessing it didn't really have much impact.
I had reasons to visit the floor where the clear Linux developers were when I worked at Intel (pre covid so everyone was in the office). A number of the people involved were kernel developers also and that's why I was talking to them - I was designing security hardware in the silicon that the kernel uses.
I have no deep insights other than any org that wasn't making money got whacked recently. I was first out of the door when the redundancy packages were offered. I imagine they weren't given an option. Clear
Right timing (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps a reading comprehension mishap has occurred here, but there is no rational way to read this such that it should contribute to your decision. Failing to support Linux is not an option Intel has 2025, and dropping Clear Linux OS does not indicate that they're doing this.
Re: Right timing (Score:2)
Intel doesn't make motherboards anymore, but apparently your architecture decision was based on their corporate support for a Linux distribution you never even heard of until you read this story? That's amazing - I choose my systems based on price, performance, and if they include integrated graphics and an OEM cooler, but hey - you do you...
Re: (Score:2)
>I haven't seen a PS/2 connector on a keyboard cable in years.
I have. People hang on to good keyboards from the past.
Re: (Score:2)
So I'm interested in how this impacts your decision? Are you choosing the company who just dropped their Linux distro, or the company that never had one in the first place?
Re: (Score:2)
Clear Linux enjoyed performance benefits even on AMD hardware. To the extent that it had any benefit over other Linux distros.
Second Verse, Same as the Frist (Score:2)
I put Moblin [wikipedia.org] on my Acer Aspire, it was lovely. Guess how that story ends, hint, it actually involves the death of another Linux distribution that it took down with it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's why I wouldn't have run this one even if I had heard of it. I really liked Moblin, but it wouldn't run on anything non-Intel anyway, so I never put it on anything else. I think I might actually have that Acer still, but I do not use it.
I am waiting for another AMD-based PC to come in the mail right now, a mini with a 5825U — the last AMD notebook/minipc processor I could find with really low consumption, 15W... And I have a Zen3 desktop too, so I can share optimized binaries between the systems.
Re: (Score:2)
I've been a Debian user for 25+ years, never had complaints (except for the systemd switcheroo, which still bugs me, and the fact that the distro incremental upgrades fail every 10 years or so, requiring a complete reinstall).
I'm with you on low power minipcs, I like to leave them headless running 24/7 and login using chromebooks. Keeps the system clean for simulations and calculations which is what I mainly care about. The Chromebooks are just ultra cheap and convenient web browsing appliances for me, I
Re: (Score:2)
My hope is that it will make sense to switch to using this new minipc for my interface, and to leave it running for long-running tasks. I have a 5900X desktop with a Nvidia card that I'm tired of dealing with video driver problems with. Speaking of Debian updates, I run Devuan. The main install on the system is an update from the prior version, and my fresh "recovery" install on another disk has no video driver problems...
Re: (Score:2)
Please stop putting linux on your laptops.
I do not want mine to die because of your bad taste in distros.
Re: (Score:2)
Are you okay?
Re: (Score:2)
>I put Moblin [wikipedia.org] on my Acer Aspire, it was lovely
That brings back memories. Moblin got tied up with all that Meego nonsense and the Microsoft parasites in Nokia twisting the knife if I remember right.
welp (Score:1)
I think it was the one-two gut punch... (Score:1)
I think it was the one-two gut punch of Colbert being cancelled and CPB/NPR losing federal funding - the lead developers keeps out of their moms basement to find out what happened, and their hands slipped on the handrail from too much caked-on Cheetos dust and they crashed thru the stairs, trapped until rescue workers come to rebuild/reinforce the stairs...
Or, Intel was tired of throwing money down a hole for an OS no one cared about or used to any great extent.
Definitely one of the two choices above.
Archived, so what, fork it (Score:2)
In a final blow, the Clear Linux OS GitHub repository is now archived in read-only mode.
Irrelevant, fork it.
Distrowatch description (Score:3)
Clear Linux is a minimal distribution primarily designed with performance and cloud use-cases in mind. The operating system upgrades as a whole rather than using individual packages. Extra software can be added to the system (along with associated dependencies) using pre-compiled bundles which can be accessed through the distribution's swupd software manager
Archived in read-only mode!!! (Score:2)
archived in read-only mode
Archived in read-only mode? Pfffffft! For a free software program that is the same as still online. Clone, fork, continue at will. Might have to file off some trademarks if any have been unconscionably inserted.
Clear was my trusted OS for about a year. (Score:2)
Clear was very promising for awhile. I liked it's numbers and it looked pretty solid.
For me it never actually got to a production environment. Oracle unbreakable managed a few showings in production, ( not my choice ) RHEL in those days smashed everything. CentOS be a close second.
I farted around with clear a lot in my home lab.
However in recent years it's been debian flavours that take the lead. RHEL is completely dead to me. I trust debian flavors more than others won't burn me in the future with a ca
Lots of Promise, indeed. (Score:1)
I also ran this on home servers, for a couple of years (2022-2023). It was certainly performant, but I migrated off when I realized that it was too "opinionated" to gain my full trust. Updates broke it badly several times. I think the article citing its "promise" is accurate; in my case I was looking for an offramp for my home/personal use of CentOS. When Red Hat announced their developer allowance of up to 16 RHEL hosts for free, that crystallized the cost of the amount of toil I expended in trying to