this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.ml 3 points 58 minutes ago

Just need to do a dnf update on them all...

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 hour ago

Wow, that's kind of a lot more Linux than I was expecting, but it also makes sense. Pretty cool tbh.

[–] cbarrick@lemmy.world 21 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

So you're telling me that there was a Mac super computer in '05?

[–] The_v@lemmy.world 12 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

If I recall correctly they linked a bunch of powermacs together with FireWire.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 16 minutes ago

It apparently later was transitioned to Xserves

[–] grue@lemmy.world 38 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

So basically, everybody switched from expensive UNIX™ to cheap "unix"-in-all-but-trademark-certification once it became feasible, and otherwise nothing has changed in 30 years.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 7 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Except this time the Unix-like took 100% of the market

Was too clear this thing is just better

[–] tate@lemmy.sdf.org 102 points 9 hours ago (4 children)

Ah hahahaha!!!!

Windows! Some dumbass put Windows on a supercomputer!

[–] steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 17 points 4 hours ago (2 children)
[–] Allero@lemmy.today 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Ironically, even Microsoft uses Linux in its Azure datacenters, iirc

[–] IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org 5 points 3 hours ago

Good point.

But still, the 30% efficient supercomputer.

[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

And Mac! Whatever that means 🤣

[–] FuryMaker@lemmy.world 28 points 7 hours ago

Probably need one, just for the benchmark comparisons.

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[–] whaleross@lemmy.world 31 points 9 hours ago (2 children)
[–] superkret@feddit.org 69 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

The Big Mac. 3rd fastest when it was built and also the cheapest, costing only $5.2 million.

[–] whaleross@lemmy.world 25 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Interesting. It's like those data centers that ran on thousands of Xboxes

[–] Cyber@feddit.uk 11 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Wha?

(searches interwebs)

Wow, that completely passed me by...

[–] Grimpen@lemmy.ca 13 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

I think it was PS3 that shipped with "Other OS" functionality, and were sold a little cheaper than production costs would indicate, to make it up on games.

Only thing is, a bunch of institutions discovered you could order a pallet of PS3's, set up Linux, and have a pretty skookum cluster for cheap.

I'm pretty sure Sony dropped "Other OS" not because of vague concerns of piracy, but because they were effectively subsidizing supercomputers.

Don't know if any of those PS3 clusters made it onto Top500.

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Makes me think how PS2 had export restrictions because "its graphics chip is sufficiently powerful to control missiles equipped with terrain reading navigation systems"

[–] onionsinmypores@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

That's so friggin cool to think about!

[–] infeeeee@lemm.ee 9 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

It was 33rd in 2010:

In November 2010, the Air Force Research Laboratory created a powerful supercomputer, nicknamed the "Condor Cluster", by connecting together 1,760 consoles with 168 GPUs and 84 coordinating servers in a parallel array capable of 500 trillion floating-point operations per second (500 TFLOPS). As built, the Condor Cluster was the 33rd largest supercomputer in the world and was used to analyze high definition satellite imagery at a cost of only one tenth that of a traditional supercomputer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster

https://scx2.b-cdn.net/gfx/news/hires/playstations.jpg

https://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomputer.html

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 13 points 9 hours ago

Oh Xserve, we hardly knew ye 😢

[–] ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world 15 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Mac is a flavor of Unix, not that surprising really.

[–] theotherben@lemmy.ml 12 points 8 hours ago

Mac is also also derived from BSD since it is built on Darwin

[–] whaleross@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Apple had its current desktop environment for it's proprietary ecosystem built on BSD with their own twist while supercomputers are typically multiuser parallel computing beats, so I'd say it is really fucking surprising. Pretty and responsive desktop environments and breathtaking number crunchers are the polar opposites of a product. Fuck me, you'll find UNIX roots in Windows NT but my flabbers would be ghasted if Deep Blue had dropped a Blue Screen.

[–] Z3k3@lemmy.world 20 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

As someone who worked on designing racks in the super computer space about 10 q5vyrs ago I had no clue windows and mac even tried to entered the space

[–] gerdesj@lemmy.ml 24 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

about 10 q5vyrs ago

Have you been distracted and typed a password/PSK in the wrong field 8)

[–] Z3k3@lemmy.world 9 points 8 hours ago

Lol typing on phone plus bevy. Can't defend it beyond that

[–] superkret@feddit.org 18 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

There was a time when a bunch of organisations made their own supercomputers by just clustering a lot of regular computers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_X_(supercomputer)

For Windows I couldn't find anything.
If you google "Windows supercomputer", you just get lots of results about Microsoft supercomputers, which of course all run on Linux.

[–] olosta@lemmy.world 11 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

No there was HPC sku of Windows 2003 and 2008 : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Server_2003#Windows_Compute_Cluster_Server

Microsoft earnestly tried to enter the space with a deployment system, a job scheduler and an MPI implementation. Licenses were quite cheap and they were pushing hard with free consulting and support, but it did not stick.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

but it did not stick.

Yeah. It was bad. The job of a Supercomputer is to be really fast and really parallel. Windows for Supercomputing was... not.

I honestly thought it might make it, considering the engineering talent that Microsoft had.

But I think time proves that Unix and Linux just had an insurmountable head start. Windows, to the best of my knowledge, never came close to closing the gap.

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 2 points 3 hours ago

At this point I think it's most telling that even Azure runs on Linux. Microsoft's twin flagship products somehow still only work well when Linux does the heavy lifting and works as the glue between

[–] Cyber@feddit.uk 4 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (2 children)

But, surely Windows is the wrong OS?

Windows is a per-user GUI... supercomputing is all about crunching numbers, isn't it?

I can understand M$ trying to get into this market and I know Windows server can be used to run stuff, but again, you don't need a GUI on each node a supercomputer they'd be better off with DOS...?

[–] Badabinski@kbin.earth 4 points 4 hours ago

I could see the NT kernel being okay in isolation, but the rest of Windows coming along for the ride puts the kibosh on that idea.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

But, surely Windows is the wrong OS?

Oh yes! To be clear - trying to put any version of Windows on a super-computer is every bit as insane as you might imagine. By what I heard in the rumor mill, it went every bit as badly as anyone might have guessed.

But I like to root for an underdog, and it was neat to hear about Microsoft engineers trying to take the Windows kernel somewhere it had no rational excuse to run, perhaps by sheer force of will and hard work.

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[–] ComradeMiao@lemmy.world 16 points 10 hours ago (2 children)
[–] jwt@programming.dev 59 points 10 hours ago (3 children)
[–] mumblerfish@lemmy.world 23 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

When you really have to look deep into god's mind you just have to put templeOS on a supercomputer.

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[–] superkret@feddit.org 20 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

You mean the NA/Mixed category?
Probably mostly z/OS and BS2000

[–] BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world 3 points 2 hours ago

How can there be N/A though? How can any functional computer not have an operating system? Or is just reading the really big MHz number of the CPU count as it being a supercomputer?

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[–] virku@lemmy.world 13 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

Would the one made out of playstations be in this statistic?

[–] superkret@feddit.org 21 points 10 hours ago

I think you can actually see it in the graph.
The Condor Cluster with its 500 Teraflops would have been in the Top 500 supercomputers from 2009 till ~2014.
The PS3 operating system is a BSD, and you can see a thin yellow line in that exact time frame.

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