Linux.com: Linux Scales

"One of the many buzzwords surrounding Linux, as its adoption into the small server arena becomes quickly dominant, is the question of how well it 'scales' -- that is, the question of how well it can handle multiple thousands of users as opposed to multiple scores, or several hundred. People need to know if Linux can handle systems that have to deal with mail in huge volumes, and do it reliably, and so on. This idea of scaling, while important, is not as important as a more fundamental aspect of computing -- the ability of an operating system to scale with the user, not with the hardware or uses that it has."

"Linux scales in the classic sense to very many different types of hardware: from tiny little embedded devices dedicated for one purpose and one purpose only, to Beowulf clusters on thousands of nodes, to even the relatively mundane Intel or PowerPC machine on your desk. It can't run mainframes all by itself -- yet -- and it can't fill every need in an every imaginable office context -- yet -- but it certainly has scaling in that very specific sense going for it."

"One of the primary unstated goals behind Linux is to produce an operating system that scales with equal efficiency from the home user to the professional -- to create an operating system that lets you, the user, and you, the developer, and you, the administrator, work on a common platform that makes it possible to learn only as much as you need to to do your job, or as far as curiosity can take you."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• sendmail.net: VA Does Clusters Good(Feb 18, 2000)
• The Register: Red Hat founds 'Xerox PARC for Linux clustering'(Feb 02, 2000)
• ComputerWorld: Veritas Promises Linux Clustering(Jan 31, 2000)
• CPU Review: SMP On a Budget: Penguin Power(Jul 09, 1999)
• IT Week: Dell to pre-install SMP Linux on desktops(May 04, 1999)