[Beowulf] distributions

[Bill Rankin]

>
> You should also point out that those nodes have been (over the same
> period) Intel only, originally i386 only.

Au contraire! out test cluster used Athlons, and our initial (4) 64- 
bit boxes were Opterons ;-)

But in essence, you are correct.

> The main point is, using FCx isn't "crazy", it is just one thing  
> one can
> do, if/when there are reasons to do so (benefits) that outweigh the
> hassles (costs).

Absolutely.  Running FC isn't necessarily bad, and in fact may  
support users better when they already run it on their desktop.   
Newer kernel, newer libraries, newer compilers can all be Good  
Things.  Commercial third party apps are probably the biggest  
sticking point.

-b


--
Bill Rankin, Ph.D.
Director, Cluster and Grid Technology Group
Center for Computational Science, Engineering and Medicine
Duke University

wrankin at duke.edu
ph: (919) 660-6561
fx: (919) 660-7070