"Linux gamers are used to being an afterthought when it comes to most major game releases, but Valve seems set to change that soon. The company announced a pending beta test for a long-awaited Linux version of its popular Steam distribution service. Valve is seeking to fill 1,000 spots for the closed beta through a Web survey for existing Steam users, asking them to detail their gaming system and experience with Linux.

"As I alluded to recently, the second round of Windows 7 vs. Linux benchmarks -- with the first round consisting of Is Windows 7 Actually Faster Than Ubuntu 10.04 and Mac OS X vs. Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu benchmarks -- are currently being done atop a Lenovo ThinkPad W510 notebook that is quite popular with business professionals. With the high-end ThinkPad W510 boasting a dual quad-core Intel Core i7 CPU with Hyper-Threading plus a NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M graphics processor, we began this second round of cross-platform benchmarks by running a set of workstation tests.