[Beowulf] Why supercomputing centers love Linux

[Lev Lafayette]

On Thu, 2016-08-25 at 10:51 +0300, Olli-Pekka Lehto wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> We decided to do a blog post on some of the reasons why we love Linux at our HPC center and thought it might be of interest to this list as well:
> http://bit.ly/2bjYNlI
> 
> Not an exhaustive list of reasons by any means but this is what we came up with. It would be interesting to hear your take on this as well if you have some different ideas. 
> 

When I run introductory training sessions I usually suggest the
following:

Performance: The command­line interface provides a great deal more power
and is very resource efficient. 

Scale: GNU/Linux scales and does so with stability and efficiency.

Software: Critical software such as the Message Parsing Interface (MPI)
and nearly all scientific programs are designed to work with GNU/Linux. 

Openness: The operating system and many applications are provided as
"free and open source" which are better placed to improve, optimize and
maintain.

HTH,

-- 
Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GradCertTerAdEd (Murdoch), GradCertPM, MBA
(Tech Mngmnt) (Chifley)
HPC Support and Training Officer +61383444193
Department of Infrastructure Services, University of Melbourne