[ Thanks to Michael
S. Mimoso for this link. ]
“Has Linux really lagged behind in
scalability?“Greenblatt: Linux has not lagged behind in
scalability, [but] some vendors do not want the world to think
about Linux as scalable. The fact that Google runs 10,000 Intel
processors as a single image is a testament to [Linux’s] horizontal
scaling. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) has had similar results in predicting weather. In the
commercial world, Shell Exploration is doing seismic work on Linux
that was once done on a Cray [supercomputer].“Terpstra: Accusations have been made that Unix
and Windows scale to far greater numbers of processors than the
Linux 2.4 kernel can. While this is true, a bare claim like this
makes little sense unless it is placed within the context of
deployment [needs]. Today, Linux kernel 2.4 scales to about four
CPUs. Still, one should consider whether a four-CPU server is
needed for departmental file and print serving in the average
company. After all, there are an average 45 users per server.“Milberg: There are many other examples of
Linux scalability. Unfortunately, once you get a bad reputation in
this industry, it is hard to shake. Because Linux has a rep of
being wonderful for e-mail or Web servers but not wonderful for
scaling well in database environments–regardless of the truth–it
will take time and lots of publicized success stories to break this
rep. Perhaps the Linux folks can hire some Microsoft advertising
people…”