94 Percent of the World's Top 500 Supercomputers Run Linux

Discussion in 'all things UNIX' started by linuxforall, Nov 15, 2012.

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  1. linuxforall

    linuxforall Registered Member

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    A full 469, or 94 percent, of the top 500 supercomputers now run Linux, according to the Top500 November report, compared with 462 in the June edition of the twice-yearly evaluation. Just 457, or 91.4 percent, of the top machines ran Linux a year ago.

    Meanwhile, only three of the world's top supercomputers in this latest report -- ranking at No. 132, 165 and 183, respectively -- run Windows, compared with just two in June and one a year ago.

    Now supercomps including the world's fastest is where it really matters and shows off Linux and open source capabilities at its very best.

    https://www.linux.com/news/enterpri...f-the-worlds-top-500-supercomputers-run-linux
     
  2. Wild Hunter

    Wild Hunter Former Poster

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    Most top supercomputers actually run highly customized versions of what you call "Linux" with several kernel modifications in their own tree that aren't necessarily made available to the public.
     
  3. Hungry Man

    Hungry Man Registered Member

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    Naturally. You can't optimize the Windows kernel. You can strip, modify, and optimize the Linux kernel.
     
  4. Huh? I thought the NT kernel was released under a shared source license, that allowed release of the source code to third parties? Not that NT would be a great choice for a supercomputer (AFAIK).

    I'm actually kind of surprised that *BSD isn't bigger in supercomputing though. UFS supports huge volumes and files, scalability is reputedly excellent, and hardware support doesn't sound like a problem when you have a multimillion dollar budget.
     
  5. NGRhodes

    NGRhodes Registered Member

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    NT kernel does not have any kind of public release licence apart from being part of Windows. There may be shared source agreements with select people/orgs, but they are private and under NDA (microsoft puts talking about contract terms in public a breach of the terms usually).

    I think this comes from IBM historically supplying the majority of supercomputers and its well known preference for Linux over BSD, even HP which supplies a smaller proportion also prefers Linux.
    99% sure its not for any specific technical reason as even MS can hammer the NT kernel into something suitable for supercomputer use.

    Cheers, Nick
     
  6. linuxforall

    linuxforall Registered Member

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    All have to follow strict GNU guidelines so yes, unless its something thats their own, if its on KERNEL be it security or any other improvements, its out in the open. Such is the nature of open source.
     
  7. Wild Hunter

    Wild Hunter Former Poster

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    It needs to be open only if they decide to distribute.
     
  8. linuxforall

    linuxforall Registered Member

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    Once they use GNU offerings its the RULE.
     
  9. Wild Hunter

    Wild Hunter Former Poster

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    Then you don't understand "Linux" license.
     
  10. linuxforall

    linuxforall Registered Member

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    And you do...........you have it confused with M$ license for sure :D
     
  11. Wild Hunter

    Wild Hunter Former Poster

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    No I didn't, really.
     
  12. x942

    x942 Guest

    By distrubiting the software on supercomputers it should be under released as source. Either way most of it is:


    Source: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/24823.wss

    IBM Watson SuperComputer:
    Source: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/..._your_own_watson_jr_in_your_basement7?lang=en

    For that matter all that's needed is to add in some open-source tools:

    And you have a supercomputer.

    More:
    Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_(computer)#Software
     
  13. Hungry Man

    Hungry Man Registered Member

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    As x942 points out, using this on a supercomputer likely constitutes distribution.
     
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