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Macintosh Clustering
HiredMan writes: "Wired is running an article comparing the set-up and admin of Linux Beowulf clusters versus Mac based clusters. Slant of the article is that the Macs are easier to set-up, maintain and are more flexible. They note that the Linux "how to" manual is 230 pages while the corresponding Apple document is a 1 page PDF file. Dauger Research of former Appleseed fame is mentioned as well, of course. MacSlash is also covering the article. Let the on-topic (for once) Beowulf comments fly..."
This actually reminds me of one of the reasons I detest Apple.
Back in the 80s when the Macintosh came out, they started running commercials where a huge stack of PC manuals was dropped on a desk with huge THUD. Then they had the little, teeny Mac manual float gently to the desk. Then the announcer came up, "which would you rather have?" or some idiotic comment like that.
Of course, after that, we saw the Great Manual Shrinkage where PC makers fell over each to ship as little documentation as possible.
So ever wonder why you get so little useful information with your computer? Blame Apple.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Sorry, but I don't buy it. The Mac was probably somewhat easier back then than Win 3.1, but the documentation you got with PCs was useful. Apple shipped a small manual by leaving out all the useful information.
It was total marketing, not even close to reality.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Wrong. Commodity parts such as memory and hard drives are exactly the same on the Mac. I have bought memory and hard drives at Sam's club, and they work just fine in my Mac.
Yeah RIGHT! Good luck getting apple to send you a new hard drive or memory under warranty, even if you know and they know DAMN WELL that is where the problem lies, you still have to put the whole damn thing back in a box and ship it to them, or take it to some idiotic computer store and wait for them to get the parts from apple. then a so-called "technician" with all the technical prowess of a turnip can put a shiny new chip or powersupply in or reformat your hard drive.
I love my mac, but every warranty issue i've had with other macs made me want to SCREAM.
The thing that gets me is that all these people that have been posting about how easy Mac's could cluster and all that, but what's really funny is that, why the hell would you need it!?
Mac's (other than being used in some schools) are used by people wanting to use Photoshop (or the like). Hell, I'd love a dual cpu G4 to use for that, no doubt. But, on the same token, if i was going to build the ultimate game box, i'd sure as hell use PC hardware and run Windows, or if i wanted to, oooh, i dont know, run a cluster for number-crunching, i'm NOT gonna use either Windows or Mac, there's hardly ANY advantage. Using Linux for cluster farms is cheaper, open-sourced (for any proprietary development), and more flexible. Now, i'm not some big Linus-for-President idiot or hardcore Lin-head, but I do know that choosing an architecture for building a clustered system based on how EASY it is to set up is stupid.
If you're going to be setting one of these up, you probably NEED to know what the fsck you're doing at a keyboard, and claiming that a Mac cluster is better because the manual is smaller?! Give me a break.
Quit being a pussy, and learn.
And on a final note, there's a reason Mac's dont have a significant share of the server market (not that i'll pretend to know what it is, but they dont), just look at the breakdown of http servers on the Web.
/* Wait for the flames */
Beer, now there's a temporary solution -- Homer Jay S.
I can't believe what I'm reading! DO NOT TRY to compare the hardware costs over the longterm between a WORLD-WIDE PC standard and Apple's. It cannot be done.
My ugly beige case (which I actually pride myself on, if my box was more than 10 different colors and I could see through it.... I'd make it an aquarium I think, I dunno) can support a motherboard from any friggin corner store or mail house. Your pretty box is the product of one company and the price is whatever they want it to be (if they even make em anymore).
PC's are CHEAPER to maintain in terms of hardware.
Bottom line.
Anonymous Coward (I kinda like that!)
-- I'll reply to valid voices. See ya!
So, I took the bait... I went to Compaq's site and spec'ed out an equivalent workstation. Note, I'm not souping up the video card or CD-ROM like the Apple workstations. No need to waste money.
...
I worked at Los Alamos this summer with 9 seperated machines and a 32 node cluster
None of the computers there were purchased from the point and click menu at Dell's web site.
So fuck off unless you have something useful to say.
"had to write a custom 64-bit filesystem to deal with the massive amounts of data to cross reference."
The fact that a sufficiently robust 64-bit file system isn't available on an Apple OS is a pretty good illustration of this guy's point.