[Beowulf] SGI to offer Windows on clusters

[Ed Hill]

On Sun, 15 Apr 2007 "Douglas Eadline" <deadline at eadline.org> wrote:

> My understanding is that FC7 will include distro building tools
> for both custom rolls and live CD/DVD's. So I think
> you will start to see a lot of customized FC rolls that
> contain a subset of packages for a specific "domain".
> (I have been working on such integrated suite of RPMs
> for FC6)

Yes, exactly!  And most of these "spins" will have the ability to
install any amount of additional packages up-front if you have some sort
of Net connection.  Or install them later with yum/pirut/yumex/kyum/rpm
or whatever you want.


> Of course, as Jeff Layton has stated, the ISV's
> have difficulty with the fast pace of Fedora, but
> adroit open source end-users seem to like the
> latest and greatest.

If all of the bits used by a particular ISV code are user space then
they can use static linkage.  And statically linked executables can be
rather portable between Linux distros.  Alternatively, they can package
all the needed shared libs in some self-contained (e.g., rpath or
LD_LIBRARY_PATH wrapper script) fashion.  There will always be the
possibility of some little fiddly problems (e.g., X windows issues) but
I suppose that's inescapable.


> I don't see and easy way to reconcile this situation.
> Most production shops and data centers need stability,
> while those who want to use the latest MB/CPU combination
> have difficulties with the "long haul" distributions.

True.

You can go a long way with rpath/LD_LIBRARY_PATH gymnastics but its not
a 100% solution because it does not address every issue.  Still, some
ISVs take this route and manage to do a fairly good job.

Ed

-- 
Edward H. Hill III, PhD  |  ed at eh3.com  |  http://eh3.com/
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