Slashdot Mirror
Linux Played a Vital Role In Discovery of Higgs Boson
An anonymous reader writes "Scientific Linux and Ubuntu had a vital role in the discovery of the new boson at CERN. Linux systems are used every day in their analysis, together with hosts of open software, such as ROOT. Linux plays a major role in the running of their networks of computers (in the grid etc.) and it is used for the intensive work in their calculations."
Yup, C++ too. They couldn't make it out of thin air -- now everybody wants a bit of success.
Have you heard about SoylentNews?
The only thing that would be newsworthy is if you managed to do something highly technical without having Linux play a vital role. For everyone who thinks that a complete absence of Linux is the norm: Did you use the internet?
... but it's the de facto standard where I work when you need serious shit done -- large or small.
After tinkering with Debian on my Raspberry Pis, it's pretty clear that kids are going to learn how pervasive Linux can be. As long as other operating systems are closed source or require money to run, Linux will be more than abundant. I worked at a Fortune 500 company and aside from some hilariously painful Sharepoint servers, everything was Linux. If OSX is Uranium on the periodic table, Linux is Hydrogen. If Windows is as abundant and costly as diamonds, Linux is as abundant and costly as carbon. It may be no-frills, it might be forever doomed to be passed over by gamers and musicians
My work here is dung.
They probably would had still found it.
I would also like thank Expo Dry Erase markets, without them we wouldn't get our first draft of the calculations.
The Vital Role is technology that without it, it wouldn't happen. Not something without it, you would have a perfectly usable substitute.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Linux is indeed used in many scientific fields. Speed? Customization? Open source tools? Probably all the above. If anyone is working on Neuroscience, for example, I bet he/she already knows NeuroDebian or will be interested to use it.
"Sum Ergo Cogito"
Yup, C++ too. They couldn't make it out of thin air -- now everybody wants a bit of success.
Let's not forget THE most important members of the team: the folks who made the coffee! NOTHING helps more with analysis than fresh pots and pots of coffee!
C++ and Linux - pffft! Gimme enough coffee and all I need is an abacus, some graph paper and colored pencils!
oxygen played a vital role in the discovery of the new boson at CERN. Oxygen plays a major role in the running of their brains. Finally the world will take oxygen seriously as a means to move humanity forward.
Once you get outside of editing msword documents, Linux is pretty much useful to everyone, everywhere. If you think that Linux isn't useful, you're wearing your consumer blinders a little too tight.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Naw, I think Microsoft's biggest contribution to all this was the Comic Sans font.
By the same line of reasoning, you could argue that COBOL tax software run by IRS and equivalent bodies in European countries was a key component in finding the Higgs boson. And the baker on the street corner was a key component as well because he made the scientists happier in the morning and therefore more productive. You have to draw the line somewhere as to what is a part of the project and what isn't.
Ezekiel 23:20
So what if Linux played a role in their server operations. Microsoft was used in all the ways that made the money donated to the project. So once again Linux users talk about "free" when they really mean "provided for by someone else."
Overly broad connection is bizarre. You see, in the academic world professors tend to use the best tool available or make a better tool. The LHC is a good example of that, since it simply didn't exist until a group of academics turned their efforts to creating it. I guarantee LHC researchers have refined and contributed back to many OSS projects. If anything, Linux and BSD thrive off of contributions made by researchers (academic and otherwise). It would be more noteworthy if Linux played a minimal role at a scientific project like the LHC.
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
So that's why it took them so long to find the Higgs Boson. They had to 'see' it.
If they'd had a properly working audio stack, they would have been able to hear it years ago...
There's no place like
Computers played a major role in the discovery of the Higgs boson.
I hear electricity played a pretty important role, too.
It has been noted by others (in the article, for example) that Linux is the undisputed king of high-performance computing, in the public sector at least. My only assumption is that that is not random, that there are reasons for it.
As far as other open source solutions BSD kernels generally do not have such good support for hard real time applications.
I have seen a lot of posts by you on this site and Engadget. You put down open source solutions and champion MS almost always. You also tend to almost always use populist ignorant style rhetoric. Consider the possibility that the internet would be a better place if you would just shut up and listen for a while.
If Linux is so great, then why aren't they selling it for super cheap to poor people, like Microsoft is with Windows? Do they think we're made of money or something?
Scientific installations used to use Solaris a lot. Linux isn't better. It's just cheaper.
Wait, where does Ubuntu come in? CMS and ATLAS are standardized on SL5/6 and I'm guessing LHCb and ALICE are also using SL. Who's using Ubuntu?
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it
Eh? Linux edits MS Word documents well with Libreoffice. The really weak areas are games, and a huge number of specialized apps from web and graphics development. Most Linux tools really cannot match the Adobe stuff.
I hope people appreciate the gravity of that statement.
> On the computational side, BSD, Windows, Aix, Irix, Solaris could have all done exactly the same thing.
In theory yes, in practice, no. As a former astrophysicist we used to use Linux and Solaris for our computing despite the fact that most of the non-computing competent people used Windows on their desktops. The reason we used Linux is that it is a vastly superior development environment than Windows (Visual Studio was not useful for our purposes) and is also vastly superior (that is, easier and more open to us) for hardware integration than Windows. We also were producing and analyzing huge amounts of data, so were using 64-bit Linux while Windows users were still figuring out how to get their 16-bit legacy apps working on their 32-bit systems.
We also wanted uptimes of months whereas with Windows of the time you crossed your fingers that you'd go a day without some kind of fault happening. I'm sure fellow scientists at CERN developed a lot of software themselves and also found Linux far better for this purpose. That is why techie people prefer Linux over Windows - for practical reasons rather than 'religion' as you suppose. The reason you fail to understand this is probably because you are not trying to develop software for 'big data' problems. That's ok, please just understand that this colors your personal view with an inaccurate picture. Best to keep quiet about stuff you know nothing about.
If Microsoft had been involved they would have discovered the Zune boson, the particle that mediates pogo dancing.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Apple did not play any role in the discovery of the Higgs because it is too busy launching new patent troll lawsuits.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Didn't we already prove linux has a place in the world? Why are we still getting these stories still trying to validate linux.
http://interserver.net/
Others have commented on just how widespread Linux really is these days, but that overlooks another reason why this is not news: CERN has been active in the Linux community since the '90s! I remember running into CERN scientists over here to talk about their use of Linux at Linuxworld around '98 or so. Back then, they were basically rolling their own in-house distro, but I'm not surprised to hear they're using Scientific Linux now. Five'll getcha ten that they've had a hand in the development of Scientific Linux. Indeed, if you go to https://www.scientificlinux.org/ you'll see, right at the top of the page: "SL is a Linux Release put together by Fermilab, CERN, and various other labs and universities..." So, they're using the Linux they helped develop! Boy, there's some shocking news!
Shameless plug for a friend who created this shirt: http://www.threadless.com/submission/436738/You_re_just_not_my_type/from,cococosy
I was exploring sci-linux' site and they had the "limitation page"
https://www.scientificlinux.org/distributions/6x/62/limitations
Well ... it's blank !!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !