this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 97 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

The Big Mac. 3rd fastest when it was built and also the cheapest, costing only $5.2 million.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Interesting. It's like those data centers that ran on thousands of Xboxes

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Wha?

(searches interwebs)

Wow, that completely passed me by...

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I think it was PS3 that shipped with "Other OS" functionality, and were sold a little cheaper than production costs would indicate, to make it up on games.

Only thing is, a bunch of institutions discovered you could order a pallet of PS3's, set up Linux, and have a pretty skookum cluster for cheap.

I'm pretty sure Sony dropped "Other OS" not because of vague concerns of piracy, but because they were effectively subsidizing supercomputers.

Don't know if any of those PS3 clusters made it onto Top500.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

It was 33rd in 2010:

In November 2010, the Air Force Research Laboratory created a powerful supercomputer, nicknamed the "Condor Cluster", by connecting together 1,760 consoles with 168 GPUs and 84 coordinating servers in a parallel array capable of 500 trillion floating-point operations per second (500 TFLOPS). As built, the Condor Cluster was the 33rd largest supercomputer in the world and was used to analyze high definition satellite imagery at a cost of only one tenth that of a traditional supercomputer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster

https://scx2.b-cdn.net/gfx/news/hires/playstations.jpg

https://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomputer.html

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

OMG I can feel the heat emanating from that photo

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Makes me think how PS2 had export restrictions because "its graphics chip is sufficiently powerful to control missiles equipped with terrain reading navigation systems"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Some of thaose restrictions get stupid. We had a client ship us their hardware and they included Laser Mouse on the manifest. The US border controls would not allow delivery due to a Laser being included LOL. Had they just entered it as a Mouse the package would have been delivered.

[–] onionsinmypores 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That's so friggin cool to think about!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

I remember when 128 but SSL Encryption was export restricted in the mid 90's. When I first opened an online banking account, the Bank sent a CD with a customized version of Netscape Navigator with 128 bit SSL, and the bank logo in place of the Netscape N.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago

Oh Xserve, we hardly knew ye 😢

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

That's highly debatable.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Mac is a flavor of Unix, not that surprising really.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago

Mac is also also derived from BSD since it is built on Darwin

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Apple had its current desktop environment for it's proprietary ecosystem built on BSD with their own twist while supercomputers are typically multiuser parallel computing beats, so I'd say it is really fucking surprising. Pretty and responsive desktop environments and breathtaking number crunchers are the polar opposites of a product. Fuck me, you'll find UNIX roots in Windows NT but my flabbers would be ghasted if Deep Blue had dropped a Blue Screen.