Still Think Linux Is Just for Start-Ups?

“That’s the question the Financial Times was asking last week,
and it’s a rather strange question, when you think about it. It
really begs another question: Was there ever, let alone still,
anyone who thought Linux was “just for start-ups.” Who would these
people be? People who think a Windows server OS is a secure, stable
platform that every established company should be using? The sorts
of people who have the bright idea of putting Apple hardware in
their data centers? Surely not anyone who has the slightest
understanding of what Linux is capable of, or who understands that
open source operating systems are much more than a solution for
cash-starved start-ups trying to do computing on the cheap.

“Start-ups very rarely build themselves supercomputers, and
certainly not the sorts of heavy duty number-crunching machines
that make it on to the TOP500 list. But a quick glance at the
latest list, from November 2010, shows that well over 80 percent of
the fastest 500 machines in the world use a Linux server operating
system. There’s a few UNIX machines in there too, and an handful of
Windows HPC boxes — if one can call a supercomputer a box — but
by and large it’s all Linux, Linux, Linux.”

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