[Linux-aus] Scaling

[Leon Brooks]

In a widely-reprinted article, you wrote:
> the Linux environment does not scale up as well as Unix

I'm wondering if you could qualify this statement for our mailing list. 
How well does it stand up in the light of Linux being deployed in huge 
clusters, huge single-image servers, and huge enterprises?

A good reference for a huge cluster is this LinuxWorld article about 
Thunder, a 4096-processor cluster delivered to Lawrence Livermore Labs:

    http://www.linuxworld.com/story/44799.htm

A good reference for huge single-image servers is SGI's Altix:

    http://www.sgi.com/servers/altix/

A good reference for huge enterprises is LVM Insurance using Linux to 
power "eight to ten thousand" workstations:

    http://www-306.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/AKLR-5JRQR7

...or possibly Banrisul's 2000 Linux-based ATMs:

    http://www.linux.org/people/banrisul_english.html

...or possibly Bristol-Myers Squibb's "several thousand" desktop 
machines being integrated into a computing grid to help their servers 
along, which kind of kills several birds with one stone in that it's a 
large enterprise full of individual workstations gathered into a 
cluster in support of a handful of supercomputers:

    http://www.platform.com/newsevents/inthenews/prelease.asp?id=90

Cheers; Leon

-- 
http://cyberknights.com.au/     Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/       Vice President, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/            Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/            Past Committee Member, Linux Australia
http://osia.net.au/             Member, Open Source Industry Association