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All 500 of the World's Top 500 Supercomputers Are Running Linux (zdnet.com)

Freshly Exhumed shares a report from ZDnet: Linux rules supercomputing. This day has been coming since 1998, when Linux first appeared on the TOP500 Supercomputer list. Today, it finally happened: All 500 of the world's fastest supercomputers are running Linux. The last two non-Linux systems, a pair of Chinese IBM POWER computers running AIX, dropped off the November 2017 TOP500 Supercomputer list. When the first TOP500 supercomputer list was compiled in June 1993, Linux was barely more than a toy. It hadn't even adopted Tux as its mascot yet. It didn't take long for Linux to start its march on supercomputing.

From when it first appeared on the TOP500 in 1998, Linux was on its way to the top. Before Linux took the lead, Unix was supercomputing's top operating system. Since 2003, the TOP500 was on its way to Linux domination. By 2004, Linux had taken the lead for good. This happened for two reasons: First, since most of the world's top supercomputers are research machines built for specialized tasks, each machine is a standalone project with unique characteristics and optimization requirements. To save costs, no one wants to develop a custom operating system for each of these systems. With Linux, however, research teams can easily modify and optimize Linux's open-source code to their one-off designs.
The semiannual TOP500 Supercomputer List was released yesterday. It also shows that China now claims 202 systems within the TOP500, while the United States claims 143 systems.

8 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. This is the year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Linux makes it to the desktop, of a supercomputer.

  2. Re:That's because... by anon+mouse-cow-aard · · Score: 4, Funny

    oblig: other OS's are Finnished?

  3. Re: 'This happened for two reasons.' by qwerty+shrdlu · · Score: 4, Funny

    Odd statement, considering Microsoft mantra declares Linux is far more expensive than Linux.

    I think you got that backwards

  4. Re:That's because... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Actually he abandoned his homeland in search of warmth.

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    #DeleteChrome
  5. Of course it requires a supercomputer by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... to fully appreciate all the features of the latest Enlightenment desktop.

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    #DeleteChrome
  6. Re:Any cluster scales by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 5, Funny
    plenty of Windows clusters doing stuff.

    The technical term for this is "botnets".

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    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  7. Re:That's because... by invictusvoyd · · Score: 4, Funny

    shhh.. No one knows that all the TOP 500 supercomputers run on EMACS..

  8. Re: Doesn't guarantee success on the desktop by stooo · · Score: 4, Funny

    >> "I'll be installing Linux when I have a week of downtime."
    If you need a week of downtime from MS to convince you to switch to Linux, you should rather stay with MS until having a month long downtime. Then you'll be really convinced :)

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