Comments on: The Little Green Lizard that Could http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/ HPC News Without the Noise for Supercomputing Professionals | insideHPC Sun, 19 May 2013 10:46:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Kevin Buterbaugh http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/#comment-63797 Kevin Buterbaugh Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:12:46 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/#comment-63797 Hi John, Couple of quick followups ... first, for some strange reason Novell isn't mentioning what version of Linux LANL's new Roadrunner cluster is using - probably because it's using RedHat. Second, while you can always find a cheap(ly made) PC at a lower price than an "equivalent" Mac, when you start comparing Macs to PC's from other Tier 1 vendors (Dell, HP, etc.) I think you'll find the cost differential to narrow considerably. I believe the small premium you do pay for a Mac is primarily for two reasons: 1) (most) people will pay it. If you're Apple, or any other seller for that matter, why would you price something at $1,000 when you know people will pay $1,200? 2) I believe Apple subsidizes their (fantastic) software by the "premium" on hardware. I, for one, will gladly pay a slight hardware premium to get vastly superior software. My 2 cents worth... Kevin P.S. I believe a better analogy than Mortons / your own herd of cattle for MacOS X / OpenSUSE would have been Mortons / road-kill possum... ;-) Hi John,

Couple of quick followups … first, for some strange reason Novell isn’t mentioning what version of Linux LANL’s new Roadrunner cluster is using – probably because it’s using RedHat.

Second, while you can always find a cheap(ly made) PC at a lower price than an “equivalent” Mac, when you start comparing Macs to PC’s from other Tier 1 vendors (Dell, HP, etc.) I think you’ll find the cost differential to narrow considerably.

I believe the small premium you do pay for a Mac is primarily for two reasons: 1) (most) people will pay it. If you’re Apple, or any other seller for that matter, why would you price something at $1,000 when you know people will pay $1,200? 2) I believe Apple subsidizes their (fantastic) software by the “premium” on hardware. I, for one, will gladly pay a slight hardware premium to get vastly superior software.

My 2 cents worth…

Kevin

P.S. I believe a better analogy than Mortons / your own herd of cattle for MacOS X / OpenSUSE would have been Mortons / road-kill possum… ;-)

]]> By: John Leidel http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/#comment-63646 John Leidel Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:10:50 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/#comment-63646 Rich, I was thinking we could hold the BBQ the weekend before SC08. :-) As always, thanks for your comments! Rich, I was thinking we could hold the BBQ the weekend before SC08. :-)
As always, thanks for your comments!

]]> By: Rich http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/#comment-63627 Rich Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:33:24 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/#comment-63627 quick unofficial updated. Back a few days ago during the development of RedStorm, Cray needed a 64 bit O/S that they could modify for Portals, etc. SUSE was cooperative and willing to work with Cray on this one off project. This one off project just happened to grow into the XT line of computers. So, since SUSE was helpful and worked with Cray to get the O/S to work on RedStorm we just stayed with them with our current XT product lines. Which is growing and growing and growing. This of course I've learned through the rumor mill, and nothing official. But, from a feet on the ground viewpoint, it makes a lot of sense. Rich quick unofficial updated.

Back a few days ago during the development of RedStorm, Cray needed a 64 bit O/S that they could modify for Portals, etc. SUSE was cooperative and willing to work with Cray on this one off project. This one off project just happened to grow into the XT line of computers.

So, since SUSE was helpful and worked with Cray to get the O/S to work on RedStorm we just stayed with them with our current XT product lines. Which is growing and growing and growing.

This of course I’ve learned through the rumor mill, and nothing official. But, from a feet on the ground viewpoint, it makes a lot of sense.

Rich

]]> By: Rich http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/#comment-63625 Rich Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:21:29 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/#comment-63625 Come on John, we know you're living the good life in Texas! (That half sized state, says the ex Alaskan.) When is the BBQ on the new Ranch? We're running SLES 9 and upgrading to SLES 10 with the new versions of our SMW's, or Software Management Workstations. This attached to all the large Cray XT systems in the world. Why SLES and not RedHat, not sure on that one. I do know we don't want much out of our SMW O/S except as much reliability as absolutely possible. Now you've made me curious and I'll need to do some poking around to find out why SLES and not something else. I'm interested to find out now. Rich Come on John, we know you’re living the good life in Texas! (That half sized state, says the ex Alaskan.) When is the BBQ on the new Ranch?

We’re running SLES 9 and upgrading to SLES 10 with the new versions of our SMW’s, or Software Management Workstations. This attached to all the large Cray XT systems in the world. Why SLES and not RedHat, not sure on that one. I do know we don’t want much out of our SMW O/S except as much reliability as absolutely possible.

Now you’ve made me curious and I’ll need to do some poking around to find out why SLES and not something else. I’m interested to find out now.

Rich

]]> By: John Leidel http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/#comment-63538 John Leidel Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:12:57 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/#comment-63538 Kevin, thanks for your comments! I've been a long time user of Rocks [production and personal]. I absolutely loved it. CentOS is a great alternative to paying the hefty RHEL license fees for those who don't need to chat with RedHat on a daily basis. On the issue of OpenSUSE and steak. If only Apple would sell OSX for "generic" Intel platforms so I didn't have to pay the Apple hardware premium [regardless of how cool the Mac Pro looks]. Why go to Mortons when you can live in Texas and own a herd of cattle? Mortons is simply a home cooked meal! [no, i don't live in the house from the sitcom "Dallas"]. Kevin, thanks for your comments! I’ve been a long time user of Rocks [production and personal]. I absolutely loved it. CentOS is a great alternative to paying the hefty RHEL license fees for those who don’t need to chat with RedHat on a daily basis.

On the issue of OpenSUSE and steak. If only Apple would sell OSX for “generic” Intel platforms so I didn’t have to pay the Apple hardware premium [regardless of how cool the Mac Pro looks]. Why go to Mortons when you can live in Texas and own a herd of cattle? Mortons is simply a home cooked meal! [no, i don't live in the house from the sitcom "Dallas"].

]]> By: Kevin Buterbaugh http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/#comment-63527 Kevin Buterbaugh Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:29:14 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/2008/06/11/the-little-green-lizard-that-could/#comment-63527 Hi John, Let me give an opposing view. Our cluster (I work at a University) is kind of unique in that it is comprised of a mix of x86 (Opteron) and PowerPC (IBM JS/20 blade) nodes. The x86 side has always run some sort of RedHat clone (currently CentOS). When we first installed the JS/20's however, we ran SLES 9 on them because that was the only thing IBM supported. For two years we came to grow and grow in our hatred of SLES and Novell. Things that "just worked" on RedHat were a royal pain on SLES. Novell was useless - their lead technical person for the entire state we're located in liked to brag that he was running SLES on his laptop, but then couldn't tell us what kernel version he was running (and didn't know how to find out, either). This past spring we upgraded our entire cluster to 64-bit CentOS 5 and got rid of SLES / Novell for good. Kevin P.S. If you're running OpenSUSE on your desktop, let me strongly encourage you check out MacOS X. The difference between the two is kinda like the difference between a hamburger at McDonalds at a steak at Mortons. ;-) Hi John,

Let me give an opposing view. Our cluster (I work at a University) is kind of unique in that it is comprised of a mix of x86 (Opteron) and PowerPC (IBM JS/20 blade) nodes. The x86 side has always run some sort of RedHat clone (currently CentOS). When we first installed the JS/20′s however, we ran SLES 9 on them because that was the only thing IBM supported. For two years we came to grow and grow in our hatred of SLES and Novell. Things that “just worked” on RedHat were a royal pain on SLES. Novell was useless – their lead technical person for the entire state we’re located in liked to brag that he was running SLES on his laptop, but then couldn’t tell us what kernel version he was running (and didn’t know how to find out, either). This past spring we upgraded our entire cluster to 64-bit CentOS 5 and got rid of SLES / Novell for good.

Kevin

P.S. If you’re running OpenSUSE on your desktop, let me strongly encourage you check out MacOS X. The difference between the two is kinda like the difference between a hamburger at McDonalds at a steak at Mortons. ;-)

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