[Beowulf] SGI to offer Windows on clusters

[stephen mulcahy]

Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
> Debian: released every 18 months - two years. Guaranteed to support 
> previous version for a year after release. Seamless upgrade path - well, 
> nearly :) 
> 
> 17,740 packages in Debian main. Pure 64 bit distribution. Some
> Beowulf-type software already packed. Runs out of the box on 
> Alpha/Sun/AMD64 (and will deal with legacy 32 bit hardware 
> identically so that you can have the same app. on cluster and desktops
> if you really must.) 
> 
> Supported by (at least) HP (and IBM if you ask them) on their hardware.
> 
> Licence cost $0, annual Linux vendor support fee cost $0. Network 
> updates readily available from more than one mirror site per country 
> where feasible.
>  
> What's not to like ? :)
> 

Hi Andy,

I'd have to agree - we've built our (small) 20-node cluster of diskless 
nodes using Debian Etch and I've been extremely happy with it. Living 
with a bleeding edge distro like FC just seems to be a 
maintenance-headache.

Mind you - if you want to use commercial software then in a lot of cases 
you are out of luck unless you're using RH or SuSE. But are people with 
100 node clusters paying for RHEL subs for all those nodes? Or using 
CentOS?

-stephen
-- 
Stephen Mulcahy, Applepie Solutions Ltd, Innovation in Business Center,
    GMIT, Dublin Rd, Galway, Ireland.      http://www.aplpi.com