[Beowulf] SGI to offer Windows on clusters

[Kevin Ball]

On Thu, 2007-01-18 at 21:31, Jim Lux wrote:
> At 04:41 PM 1/18/2007, Robert G. Brown wrote:
> >On Thu, 18 Jan 2007, Jim Lux wrote:
> >
> >>And likewise, WinXP on the desktop.  A company with 20,000 WinXP 
> >>desktops cannot tolerate BSODs and mystery hangs on a significant 
> >>fraction of those desktops at any frequency.  When your call center 
> >>operators are being timed to the second, the sysadmin folks know 
> >>INSTANTLY when there are problems.
> >>
> >>But, just as in the server application, the configurations are 
> >>rigorously controlled and tested.  It's certainly not the usual 
> >>home computer with umpty-five downloaded widgets, etc.
> >
> >Even with strong controls and an instantly reinstallable system image,
> >WinXX boxes are corrupted once a month or so in our labs.
> 
> But you've got those pesky students to deal with.  Not like a 
> corporate environment where everyone boots off the same image from 
> the server, they run SMS, and if you muck with the configuration, you 
> can get fired.
> 
> >Too many
> >things that can go wrong.  Fortunately, they've dropped the
> >reinstallation time to almost nothing.
> 
> Precisely..
> 
> I should have used a different metaphor, though.  Microsoft so far has
> >been to Linux like Fezzik was with Westley in The Princess Bride,
> >tolerating its occassional blows.  "I just want you to feel you're doing
> >well.  I have for people to die embarrassed..."
> 
> In an interesting coincidence of references, my wife and daughter's 
> horse is named "The dread pirate Roberts", the reference to which I 
> have found is almost as dating as a former competitor of mine(in 
> horse shows, not in engineering) who named her horse "E-Ticket", said 
> tickets not having existed for decades. We all knew what it meant, 
> but the 12 year olds hanging around the barn didn't. (Of course, they 
> didn't understand who "The Stones" were, either.  Such is life in codgerdom)

I'm not sure how dating the princess bride is;  my younger brother is
still in college, but we both grew up with that movie!  'E-Ticket'
though?  Man!

-Kevin


> 
> 
> 
> Jim 
> 
> 
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