<html>
<body>
At 11:22 AM 4/16/2007, Peter St. John wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">While looking around for a
laptop I discovered that MS is paying Google for the keyword
"linux" to point to a "Get the Facts!" page (reminds
me of TheTruth.com) with testomonials about why MS is better than Linux
for clustering (!). What struck me was that I wasn't googling "linux
cluster" but just "linux notebook", yet the page is about
MS cluster installations at research facilitites. <br>
<br>
The ad is
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/facts/default.mspx?R=cf">
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/facts/default.mspx?R=cf</a><br>
<br>
The testamonials all seem to be equivalent to "I"m a PhD in
Rocket Science but setting up a Linux Cluster is too complex, so using MS
saves me time to do Rocket Science". </blockquote><br>
Well, as a rocket scientist of sorts (although not actually in
propulsion), I didn't see any rocket science folks.. I'd be willing to
bet that among those who actually DO rocket science Linux has a fairly
high penetration(at least here at JPL, it does).<br><br>
But your point is well taken. And so is Microsoft's... <br><br>
A more accurate model for this market would be "I'm a rocket
scientist with a Windows desktop application that provides me with a
familiar interface to a back end that might be a cluster or might not. I
don't want to have to care what's running back there in the closet,
because I'm a rocket scientist, not a sysadmin. *I* don't much care
who provides me with a turnkey solution, I'll be happy, independent of
what's under the hood. But I'll be darned if I'm going to download ISOs
off the web, burn them and build my own cluster. Talk to the
computing infrastructure people and stop bothering me. And if
you're selling something they don't like, you're doomed.".<br><br>
<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">None of them mention if their MS
clusters were in any way subsidized by MS. </blockquote><br>
The U Va one is probably the Apple Mac cluster, no?<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Also, I assume that essentially
they are paying their vendor to do the setup & support, and they
don't say if that compares economically to, say, paying Joe to do that,
only that it saves them time themselves. Sure, if I had that budget, I'd
pay Joe and RGB to come and work for me and I would have more time for
other things. </blockquote><br>
Institutional budgets are a funny thing. Many things get done that
don't make a heck of a lot of sense from the end user, but make perfect
sense from another viewpoint. This is especially true with the
parts of the "life cycle cost" that aren't in the original
capital investment.<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
James Lux, P.E.<br>
Spacecraft Radio Frequency Subsystems Group<br>
Flight Communications Systems Section<br>
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 161-213<br>
4800 Oak Grove Drive<br>
Pasadena CA 91109<br>
tel: (818)354-2075<br>
fax: (818)393-6875</body>
</html>