US Army Linux Supercomputer

[Paul Taylor]

I just wanted to point out that M$ does have clustering. Nothing was
mentioned regarding the scale or performance of the clustering.

I know *ix dominates. 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-kclug at kclug.org [mailto:owner-kclug at kclug.org] On Behalf Of
Brian Densmore
Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 8:53 AM
To: kclug at kclug.org
Subject: RE: US Army Linux Supercomputer

Yeah, yeah (you didn't notice the smiley face - me poking fun at M$). 
The clustering you are speaking of is limited to 64 or 128 nodes, IIRC. 
Windows can't handle the kind of massive clusters we're talking about here.
That's why they made such a big deal of the fact they are looking to enter
that market to compete with Linux. Something where they'll probably throw in
the software for free and the hardware for half price. Anything to do harm
to the Linux phenomenon. If this sounds "tin-hattish" so be it. We've all
seen the way M$ approaches competition. I have yet to see the "kinder,
gentler"
M$ folks are talking about.

And, even if M$ can do this kind of clustering, it can't compete performance
wise with Linux. I don't see any Windows clusters in the top 500, not to
mention the top 10.
(to be fair, M$ used to have one in the 500, IIRC. It was a Unisys mainframe
running Windows).

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Taylor

M$ does offer clustering.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/technologies/clustering/default.asp

We use various cluster solutions at work, including M$.