Slashdot Mirror
Mac OS X replacing Linux at Tokyo University
TekkaDon writes "At least 1,150 desktop and server PCs running Linux will be replaced with Mac OS X computers at the University of Tokyo next year, as reported by Asahi (Japanese), and echoed by MacRumors.com. 'Ease of maintenance and software installation were cited among the reasons for the switch.' I wonder if Keitaro and Naru will get iMacs at Hinata as well."
OS X certainly has plenty of shared libraries, but there might be a grain of truth to the "simply not used" idea. The library set included with the core OS is remarkably rich, so in many/most cases there really isn't a need to install more support for the program [heh, this is reminding me of Ken Olsen's comparison of Unix and VMS, but now OS X is the "it's all there" OS....]. When libraries do need to be installed, they tend to be things like codecs that in turn talk to an existing framework (QT in that case), so the damage is more or less localized and insulated.
Also, the Mac tends to have a "this kind of document is handled by this program" approach, and there does seem to be a bit more "call program X" than "hook into library Y" than you typically see on other platforms. Funny, that, since it's a mindset that Unix started with and kind of drifted away from.
This is all broad generalization, of course. I'm sure that if we all work diligently, OS X can have as messy a depencency hell as any other OS. But for now, most everyone seems to be content to keep breakage on Apple's OS release schedule.
theres a little thing called ROI that most people just don't take into consideration...
See the Virgina Tech G5 Super Cluster for a good example of that...