With 97 percent of the world's fastest supercomputers running Linux,
the open-source operating system has eliminated almost all its rivals.
Posted on 06/25/2014 10:20:01 AM PDT by ShadowAce
For years, Linux has ruled supercomputing. So, it came as no surprise to anyone at the Linux Enterprise End-User Summit near Wall Street that once again the Top500 group found in its latest supercomputer ranking that Linux was the fastest of the fast operating systems.
With 97 percent of the world's fastest supercomputers running Linux,
the open-source operating system has eliminated almost all its rivals.
As one Red Hat representative said, "The only thing that would be surprising about Linux being the top dog would be if anything else even came close." He doesn't have any reason to worry.
In the latest contest, not only did Linux dominate, but Linux showed that is slowly pushing out all its competitors. In the June 2014 Top 500 supercomputer list, the top open-source operating system set a new high with 485 systems out of the fastest 500 running Linux. In other words 97 percent of the fastest computers in the world are based on Linux.
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Of the remaining 16, 13 run Unix. They appear to be running IBM AIX since they're all running on IBM Power processors. The fastest of these boxes, the United Kingdom's weather predicting system, ECMWF, ranked 60th in the world.
Two Windows boxes squeezed into the list. The best of these, coming in at 294th place, is at the Shanghai Supercomputer Center. The remaining supercomputer, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology machine, runs a mix of AIX/Unix and Linux. Solaris and BSD Unix no longer have even a toe-hold in the rankings.
The overall performance growth rate of all the systems, however, is at a historical low. For the slowest supercomputer, number 500, performance has "lagged behind historical growth trends for the past five years, a trajectory that now increases by only 55 percent each year. Between 1994 and 2008, however, the annual growth rate for the No. 500 systems’ performance was 90 percent."
The hardware vendors are trying to goose supercomputer performance by making faster processors. Intel's forthcoming Xeon Phi many-core chip, codenamed Knight's Landing, is designed to deliver up to three trillion double precision floating point operations per second (3 Teraflops) in a single processor socket. That's three times faster than Intel's current highest performance chip.
At the same time, Linux is tackling its own performance bottlenecks. A great deal of the talk at Linux Enterprise End-User Summit has been about how to drastically improve the latency in both storage and network stacks.
Why so much emphasis on performance when Linux is already the operating system of choice for anyone wanting the fastest computing? Because research and businesses, especially the stock markets and trading companies, not only want but need even faster computers. To meet this demand for ever more speed, Linux is not resting on its laurels but working hard on going ever faster.
Yeah. I think my wife would probably be fine with Ubuntu.
I use Photoshop, Visio, Sonar, utorrent, and even “command and conquer” and Ubuntu is just too much of a hassle. Now, if I wanted a “primarily internet surfing” machine, it might actually be worth looking into. I can always transfer stuff to my windows machine when necessary.
And for making drawings for a house, LibreCAD works just fine.
LibreCAD is 2D, but it’s very easy to use, has a very common interface and seems to work well for printing. Not a lot of file types (”save as”), but it’s adequate for the job of making house plans for a building department in my area.
Files can be saved as...
“LFF Font (*.lff)”
“Drawing Exchange DXF 2000 (*.dxf)”
“Drawing Exchange DXF R12 (*.dxf)”
“Font (*.cxf)”
...and can export to quite a few image formats.
There’s FreeCAD for 3D work, but I haven’t played with it, yet. There are also more sophisticated CAD packages that are commercially available.
There are some wider differences now between Linux distributions. Ubuntu is okay for those who want many features already running—especially for interfacing with smart phones and other devices. Another distribution might be better for someone with an older machine wanting to pick and choose some of the features or automatically install and run “non-free” packages (packages, many of them free of charge but with more limited licenses).
Debian, for example, which Ubuntu is derived from, requires finding and following instructions for automating downloading and installation of certain “non-free” packages (e.g., packages for using Windows software for Netflix).
Half Life 2 runs smoother on my Linux than Win... I was also able to get Age of Mythology to run great too ;^)
(Not to mention Metro, Last Light)..
So where are the Windows supercomputers?
TurboCAD, DesignCAD, SoftCAD, AutoCAD, and OrCAD were the ones I dealt with most of the time for straight CAD work. Currently working on designing a personal version of a CAD program for Linux but I still need to do a lot of work on it before I can release even an alpha version for testing. Among other things, I need the specs for reading and saving to at least .dxf, .dwg, and perhaps .wmf files to begin with besides developing the program's own extension and specifications -and that is just for the 2D version.
Spoken like a true elitist, Squidward.
Yes, anyone who does not see the wisdom of using the Atari 2400 of the computer world is obviously an uncultured peasant and too ignorant to realize the artistic grace available for the asking instead of concentrating on the REAL work a computer can do. (/sarc)
I think I have some old IBM PC-XT machines in storage that can function perfectly well as terminals instead of all those mcbookz, but I need to see if I still have the EGA monitors to go with them.
You will still be able to send and receive instructions and messages with them, but the fonts will not be as pretty and you can not use your favourite foo-foo picture as the background for it, and at least it will not set someone back a few thousand dollars for the same useages necessary.
Of course, some people (*cough* Liberal Elitist Macophile Snobs *cough*) would probably sneer at anyone not preferring to pay a huge amount extra for their pretty little fonts and pictures to play with, but perhaps some day when they grow up they will come to realize that the work can be done without them just the same.
(Or maybe they won't.)
Well, after you posted that historic photo (which I now find you swiped from Swordmaker) with such an inane caption, I could hardly resist!
The fact is, people who are hardcore about computing are partial to Macs as their personal machines. For instance, here is Rob Pike of Google giving a presentation on the Go programming language, which he co-invented:
If you follow the industry at all, you'll know he's typical. Here's another example, featuring Brendan Eich, the inventor of JavaScript (and recent celebrated victim of the faggots):
Well, it looks like facts just don't matter to some trolls. You criticized me for pointing the facts out to Utilizer, and challenging him on his claims a month or so ago. . . but here he is again making the same claims but misrepresenting my factual evidence (one of the JPL Mars lander control room photos) to spread his lies. . . despite being presented with definitive contrary evidence. How "Democrat" of him. He won't let truth stand in the way of his agenda. LOL!
Follow his posts in this thread and the comments from some others who catch him at it!
Utilizer's Apple Mac bashing post
I told you this is what these guys do. He never did come up with a computer to beat that MacPro. . . and couldn't answer my example of my iMac that runs several versions of Windows, Linux, Unix, in sandboxes under OSX. Do you understand now WHY I respond to these trolls as I do? Their FUD needs to be countered. They do it deliberately. . . and they know it is a lie.
By the ways BBB, I am not a dentist. . . I manage the dental office of one of the top Dental Implantologists in the world. My education is in Economics and Business Administration. Our head dentist started out as an aerospace engineer before leaving that career and going back for a doctorate in dentistry. . . and he knows several of the people in those photos personally and keeps in touch via email. A couple of them have dropped into the office. Since we are 100% Mac, they talked Mac with us. . . and their personal computers are not used as "dumb terminals," as Utilizer claims. They've been very pleased to see iMacs, MacBook Airs, MacPros, and iPads being used in a professional environment.
No, I merely stated the obvious:
“You sure come off as an a$$hole sometimes.
Just my 2 cents.”
This recent post seems to make reinforce my point, doncha think?
Good grief. . . I’m the a$$hole? REALLY? You accept the repeated bad behavior of the one who LIES and attack the one who merely politely corrected his false statements and challenges him to prove his claims (which he has never done). . . and when he deliberately continues posting the same false information, information he now has to know is false, you again attack the one who points out HIS egregious postings.
Are you seriously proposing we IGNORE these insidious lies? That’s how they get away with it! What does support for the liar does that make YOU? I think that may make you what you are claiming I am.
As I told Defiant in the previous thread, I’ve seen the MO of these trolls for too many years and I’m tired of it. I no longer am willing to abide their lies. . . and these are deliberate lies intended to insult fellow Freepers. I have put up with it for too long and I won’t ignore it any longer. I will provide correct information proving the facts. Frankly, BBB, I’m mad as hell at people like Utilizer and their casual nastiness and I will call him and them on their egregious lies EVERY TIME. If YOU think that makes me “come off as an a$$hole,” I’ll wear the title with pride.
If more conservative had called the Liberal liars on their falsehoods instead of politely ignoring their egregious behaviors, we would not be in the mess we are in today! THEY count on us being polite about not objecting and calling them liars. . . we STILL don’t.
You were NOT polite, that’s why I called you out.
You acted like an a$$hole.
You still are.
Lay off the Mountain Dew.
I've read both your posts, and it is imminently apparent that the true"a$$hole" is the one who responds to rational discourse by tossing the "A-word" around. What a pitifully inadequate vocabulary -- and mentality!
BBB333, your "a$$hole" is hanging out -- for all to see and ridicule!!
Exactly what was impolite about this post in response to Utilzers deliberately insulting condemnation that no Mac user was capable of doing serious decoding work to find vulnerabilities or his claim that all Macs are over priced junk and the Chinese produce better OS's without proof? His claims and insults to all Mac using Freepers were not at all intended to be "polite" and in fact were intended to incite a flame war.
I was quite restrained in my response in merely calling him on his facts and challenging him to prove his assertions. He failed to do so. His silence is deafening which says he has NO FACTS to back his claims. Instead I am attack with insults by YOU. Seems to me your attack on me means you are defending Utilizer's claims. Do you want to prove his points?
Now you exacerbate the insult by implying I am under the influence of a mind altering drug. . . another ad hominem attack, which means you have no facts to back your position either. Please, BBB, take a fresh view at that thread and consider your actions in light of Utilizer's impolite inflammatory posts. It's the equivalent of Internet Grafitti. . . and broken windows. Jim Robinson called a halt to such flame wars several years ago and banished several egregious violators. Do YOU want to support that type of behavior?
You brought ME into this today.
Take some instruction - be nice!
I can piss with you for a day or weeks if you wish - Why are you always so unpleasant?
My first response to you was about your demeanor - and you still are not gettin’ ANY love from me.
Others on this board can debate without being so downright rude!
Grow up, and stop pinging me when you find something interesting that proves you are the best non-dentist in the world.
I don’t give a damn. You started this today, not me.
“Microsoft is a business.
Linux is software.
“
The opposite of business is free.
It is liberalism/communism to think software is not a business and should be free.
“I’ve never claimed to be anything other than a Linux partisan. Unlike the majority of MS-Window zealots though, I actually have extensive experience with both, and haven’t formed my opinions from ignorance.”
So, what then? Childish stupidity? It is one thing to be ignorant but another to purposefully do something stupid.
“When you want real work to get done, you use Linux/Unix. When you want to play games, Windows will suffice.”
Which is why millions of developers use Windows and Visual Studio and the number of Linux developers using crap like Eclipse number very, very low.
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