As I own a EPIA PD10000 (Mini-ITX with VIA C3 1Ghz "Nehemiah" with dual NIC connections) and use Linux on a full time basis, I'd have to agree with the article.
VIA's support for Linux is CRAP. I don't just mean providing barely adequate drivers, I mean not working with the community to produce drivers at all. We have to reverse engineer and develop our own from scratch! While both AMD and Intel are providing documentation specs, starting community driver projects, and even contributing direct code back, VIA is taking the Nvidia approach of just providing drivers.
The biggest difference here, is that Nvidia actually does a decent job with their drivers, while VIA doesn't seem to give a damn. (Its been a couple of years now, and they have made little attempt to improve). The community developed driver does a better job...Even then, that's barely adequate for the task. (As you have experienced in the article).
As I result, I usually assign VIA-based solutions to "background" applications like firewalls, low power file/print servers, home built robots, etc. Stuff that doesn't need much CPU grunt to run or doesn't require VIA IGP's features. Mostly "set and forget" (in a physical sense), while remotely admin'ing them.
The only worthwhile solution coming from VIA is their upcoming Isaiah processor. Said to be 2 to 4 times the performance of the current C7, while producing the same thermal footprint. I estimate that it'll be approx clock for clock equal to PIII, but still slower than Pentium-M, A64, Sempron, Celeron (Core-based), etc, etc.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with VIA's IGPs. They're a waste of time.
You're better off waiting for Intel's Silverthorne or even Diamondville. At least these will come available with i945 chipset as an option (the other is SiS)...Which actually work well under Linux!...Besides, Diamondville will come in dual-core!
=>
DailyTech - Intel Reveals 4 Watt "Diamondville" Processor Details
So I reckon it'll be like this in the future...VIA vs Intel. (embedded/budget market)
=> C3/C7 vs Diamondville/Silverthorne
=> Isaiah vs (low end) Celeron?
Regardless, the budget and embedded markets is about to explode with lots of different options to choose from!
