Michael Larabel
Michael Larabel builds his coverage around how Linux and open-source software perform on real hardware. He combines detailed kernel and driver reporting with reproducible benchmarking to show what new code and components actually do, and he carries that same depth into the desktop, data center and governance stories he writes at Phoronix.
Linux kernel, hardware and performance testing
Larabel is the founder and principal author of Phoronix, which he launched in 2004 with a focus on improving the Linux hardware experience for readers. Over more than 20,000 articles he tracks the state of Linux hardware support, kernel performance and graphics drivers, building a long-running record of how each release changes the platform.
His kernel coverage ranges from release candidates such as “Linux 7.2-rc3 Released: Close To The ‘New Normal’” through subsystem work like “Linux 6.18 IOMMU Changes For Intel, AMD, Apple & RISC-V,” where he breaks down vendor-specific changes and their impact on real systems.
Hardware reviews and multi-page benchmark features are central to his work.
In quarterly wrap-ups like “Performance Optimizations, NVIDIA Vera, Arc Pro B70 & Other Linux Highlights From Q2” he points readers to testing on parts such as the Intel Arc Pro B70 and NVIDIA’s Vera data center CPU, using varied Linux workloads to show where performance moves forward and where it stalls. When an AWS engineer reports that PostgreSQL performance is halved by a new Linux kernel, Larabel responds with benchmarks and analysis rather than opinion, using his test infrastructure to validate regressions and fixes. That mix of kernel change logs, subsystem deep dives and systematic performance testing is the main distinction in his reporting on the technology beat.
Desktop Linux, distributions and graphics
Larabel’s desktop Linux coverage extends the same hardware and performance focus into everyday user environments. He follows development of GNOME, KDE and other desktops, including articles on GNOME 51 where he examines how the “Resources” application could replace existing system tools and what that means for monitoring and control on the Linux desktop.
In “This Week In KDE: ‘Plasma Is Feeling Really Solid These …’” and pieces on the Plasma 6.3 beta he documents feature progress, stability and polish, tying interface changes back to underlying graphics and compositor work.
Distributions and display technology are a regular sub-beat. In “Ubuntu 25.04 & Fedora 42 Hit A Long Sought Milestone With HDR Support Working Well On The Linux Desktop Review” he tests HDR monitors across leading distributions, producing multi-page results that compare color, brightness and compatibility in a way that is directly tied to specific kernel and driver stacks. He also reports on gaming and graphics usage, highlighting data points such as “Steam On Linux Use Skyrocketed In March - More Than Double The macOS Gaming Marketshare” and covering projects like DXVK-NVAPI and Proton that underpin modern Linux gaming.
The desktop and graphics pieces are written with the same benchmark-led approach, showing how new features behave rather than simply announcing them.
Open-source governance and projects
Beyond performance, Larabel follows how major open-source projects make decisions and set policy. In “Debian Considering General Resolution Over LLM Usage In The …” and “Debian Developers Begin Voting Over LLM Usage Within The Project” he reports on proposals around large language model use inside Debian, explaining the options on the ballot and the implications for contributors and tooling.
His coverage of “Free Software Foundation Names Three New Board Members” gives readers a clear view of shifts inside one of the core institutions of the free software movement.
He also tracks community events and project infrastructure changes. “Kernel Recipes 2024 Slides & Videos Posted” points readers to materials from a specialist kernel conference, drawing attention to talks, experiments and emerging work in the ecosystem. Articles like “Firefox Source Code Now Hosted On GitHub” and “Android 15 Released To The Android Open-Source Project” capture when large projects change hosting, development workflows or release practices, framing those moves within the broader open-source landscape.
Taken together, these pieces show an interest in the governance, licensing and community structures that sit alongside the code he benchmarks.
Benchmarking tools and test suites
Larabel’s reporting is supported by tools he develops himself. He is the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic and OpenBenchmarking.org, which he uses to automate and share benchmarks across hardware and software configurations.
In “The Prominent Changes Of Phoronix Test Suite 8.0” he documents new test capabilities, automation features and result handling, giving technically minded readers insight into how his measurements are produced.
His benchmark-focused articles and quarterly round-ups show the scale of that work: a Q2 summary notes 872 original news articles alongside 54 Linux hardware reviews and multi-page featured benchmarks, underscoring both volume and emphasis on data-rich stories. That infrastructure lets him move quickly when new CPUs, GPUs, kernels or drivers land, because he can drop them into existing test matrices and compare against prior results. The consistency of those methods makes his coverage distinctive: whether the subject is a new IOMMU change, HDR on the desktop, an AI-assisted kernel optimization experiment or a governance vote in a major project, Larabel writes from the standpoint of someone who has already measured how Linux behaves in practice.
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