Slashdot Mirror
SW Weenies: Ready for CMT?
tbray writes "The hardware guys are getting ready to toss this big hairy package over the wall: CMT (Chip Multi Threading) and TLP (Thread Level Parallelism). Think about a chip that isn't that fast but runs 32 threads in hardware. This year, more threads next year. How do you make your code run fast? Anyhow, I was just at a high-level Sun meeting about this stuff, and we don't know the answers, but I pulled together some of the questions."
SW Weenies? Huh?
Big hairy package?
What is this, Wookie porn?
No thank you!
Why do the Slashdot editors even bother posting articles about windows?
I was looking at the front page just now and saw an article entitled "Security Patch Creation at Microsoft." I'm sure everyone knows that an article like this would obviously be nothing but Taco's blatant attempt at starting a flame war, which usually just ends up in the Linux Zealots arguing amongst themselves about how fucked up Microsoft's patching techniques are.
Comments in articles like these fall into a few categories; the type that constructively criticizes Microsoft's practices (few and far between); the type that says this type of security procedure would never happen with open source (more frequent); and the most prevalent type, "LOL linux rulez!!!!!!!!!111111111onehundredeleven" (about 99.999% of the comments).
I've build countless machines over the years and have built and helped to administer quite a few networks. Linux is good for a server, true, but as far as client operating systems go, XP is pretty decent. Sure, the licensing procedures are draconian, I'll give the Linux Zealots that, but aside from that, the system is stable, secure (if a competent admin oversees it) and fulfills most technological needs. For a home file server or print server, nothing beats Linux (as of yet), only because of the fact that I can't think of too many home users with $500 USD to fork over for a license for Windows 2003 Server.
Some of us are software pragmatists. I use whatever is best to get the job done. I prefer Mac OS X over every other operating system I've used, but I know that there are some things it cannot do. If I want to play games, I fire up an XP machine. If I want to serve clients or write code for rather ugly windowing toolkits, I use Linux. If I want a stable Unix machine that works without me taking a week off from school to configure it, I use Mac OS X.
I thought the reason we all got into computing is because we loved it, not to convert people. That is a job for fanatics. We should concentrate more on what's best for a job and not on what is fashioable to the FSF and our Linux Zealot buddies. I think it's time everyone here to grow the fuck up.
Damn, beat me to it.
...and isn't this the challenge being addressed by DragonFly BSD?
Software people use threads already, as long as the VM and OS are up to the task. I don't see why it should matter if some of the threads are implemented in hardware.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
all; In 0rder to go
This year, more threads next year.
Hmm, I can't seem to find one. For arguably one of the tech-savviest sites on all of the Internet, Slashdot contributors have surprisingly awful grammar.
We hear a lot about the lack of technical education and preparation for engineering and science careers these days, but sometimes it looks like English instruction is just as bad.
I'm not looking for perfection, and sometimes, like in comments, speed matters more than grammatical accuracy, but when you're submitting a story, it really can't hurt to read it over to make sure it fits elementary school standards.
P.S., there is no such word as "virii." There, now this is officially off-topic.
Slashdot: 24 hours behind every other site or your money back!