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Supercomputing

Submission + - Europe's largest supercomputer housed in a Chapel

Submitted by
Gary
Gary writes: "Normally supercomputers are housed in high security government buildings which are specifically built and designed to accommodate such mega structures but the MareNostrum in Barcelona Spain the 9th largest supercomputer in the world, fifth fastest in the world and the largest in Europe is installed in a Chapel. The supercomputer consists of 2560 JS21 blade computing nodes, each with 2 dual-core IBM 64-bit PowerPC 970MP processors running at 2.3 GHz for 10240 CPUs in total. It has 20 TB of RAM and 280 TB of external disk storage for more persistent storage. Running on SUSE Linux it is capable of 62.63 teraflops and a peak performance of 94.21 teraflops. It may look beautiful from the top but when you dig deeper it gets more typical."
Operating Systems

Submission + - ASK Slashdot: Which Linux Flavor for Servers 1

Submitted by BrownBag
BrownBag writes: First off, I'm a linux noob. My buddies and I are currently running our website on a webhost's Linux server. We've got the "AMP" part of LAMP down pretty good, and are now looking to colocate our own server running Linux. We are looking for a Linux distro that can scale well for multiple server growth (future), is rock solid, and configures well with memcache, load balancer, firewall etc. A free distro would be ideal, but if the Slashdot community recommends a Linux distro that is not free, that is fine as well, since our minds are open to grow with the right distro. I've done some searching on linux, but that is not yielding the fruit I am looking for. Our first goal would be to run it (learn it) as a localhost and configure it with Plesk or similar, to get ready for the real thing.
AMD

AMD Backs openSUSE with Huge New Infrastructure 117

Posted by CowboyNeal from the money-where-mouth-is dept.
apokryphos writes "AMD has helped sponsor the progress of openSUSE with leading-edge hardware and development expertise. "AMD is helping to ensure that the openSUSE Build Service continues to be an important collaboration and development platform for developers of all distributions," said Terri Hall, AMD vice president of Commercial Systems Marketing. Are these continued announcements of huge support from large OEMs an indication of a new era?"
IBM

Submission + - IBM and Novell strengthen Linux ties

Submitted by Robert
Robert writes: IBM and Novell have rekindle their long-term Linux relationships with deals to push IBM software on Novell's desktop and server operating systems among a number of announcements from both companies at Linux World. Novell may have flirted with Microsoft in recent months but its long-term commitment is to IBM, which invested $50m in Novell's as part of its $210m acquisition of SUSE Linux back in 2003.
Microsoft

Submission + - Mono: A Progress Report (onlamp.com)

Submitted by
blackbearnh
blackbearnh writes: "When Mono was first announced, it seemed that it might be the holy grail of Microsoft compatibility, a way to run .NET applications without needing Windows. Well, it's been 3 years since Mono 1.0 was released, and Edd Dumbill has taken a look at what progress has been made over at O'Reilly's ONLamp site. From TFA:

In the early years we, perhaps, suffered from the hubris of believing this was a way of routing companies towards a completely open source infrastructure. Had this been true, and given Mono's legal vulnerability in their implementation of non-standardized parts of .NET such as ASP.NET, it's fair to say we'd have seen Microsoft shut this down a while back. This may certainly be part of the reason that Novell seems to have soft-pedaled on Mono, rather than aggressively pushing it forward as a development platform. The actual effect of Mono seems to have been to draw together the two worlds of Windows and Linux better. Rather than a migration route, the result has been to provide a unification route. (You could argue that unification is the first step to migration, of course, but with the rapidly evolving world of software-as-a-service we are likely to find events overtaking us and completely different models of enterprise application provision taking hold.)
"
IBM

Submission + - IBM, Novell launch "Big Green Linux" Initi (cnn.com)

Submitted by
apokryphos
apokryphos writes: "CNN reports:

"IBM announced a Big Green Linux initiative to help its clients further integrate Linux into the enterprise as a way to reduce costs and energy consumption by building cooler data centers. The Big Green Linux initiative supports Project Big Green, a broad commitment that IBM announced in May to sharply reduce data center energy consumption for IBM and its clients.

IBM's Linux Technology Center has also been involved in contributing a number of recent features to the Linux kernel for scaling CPU clock speed and voltage and keeping idle CPUs in a 'tickless,' low-power state longer; all of which make Linux more power efficient in datacenters.""
Sun Microsystems

Submission + - Sun's CEO talks about its open source strategy (cnet.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In a wide-ranging interview, C|Net talks in depth with Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, about the company's open source strategy. Schwartz indicates that despite (or, rather, because of) open sourcing all of its software, software revenues actually increased in 2006 by 13%. In his words, in order to have sales, Sun (and other vendors) must first have adoption. Open source is an efficient, effective way to drive adoption, and therefore is Sun's strategic differentiator against Microsoft, IBM, and other global competitors. Schwartz also shares his top advice for executives at both open source and proprietary companies, where he learned the power of developers in driving sales, and whether he views Red Hat as a competitor.
Novell

Submission + - Novell wants Linux ISV standard (zdnet.com)

Submitted by neapolitan
neapolitan writes: Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian calls for Linux to develop a standard for ISV (Independent Software Vendors) to follow, so that their applications may work cross-platform. A quote from the entry, 'In Unix, we fragmented the applications and the No. 1 thing we need is applications. We need customers and the ISVs to have their footprints on the Linux platform.'

Is this certification something that is needed? It seems that an application written for Linux currently can be ported to multiple distributions without excess difficulty. Is this going to supplement the POSIX standard, or is this just a business / certification decision?

Full story at http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1303
Linux Business

Submission + - Novell CEO calls for Linux Distro Standards (zdnet.com)

Submitted by
mytrip
mytrip writes: "Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian said the Linux industry must create a vendor neutral standard for application development or face the same fragmentation that killed Unix.

Speaking before a packed audience at LinuxWorld at the Moscone Center Wednesday, the Novell CEO said the Linux Standards Base (LSB) is a good start but it's not enough. A standard Linux ISV certification is needed to prevent fragmentation and build an ISV community like the one Microsoft created for Windows, he said.

"In Unix, we fragmented the applications and the No. 1 thing we need is applications. We need customers and the ISVs to have their footprints on the Linux platform," he said. "If you look at the competition and Windows their application availability is their biggest advantage. They've got the applications.""
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft sneaking up on the graphics market? (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "Microsoft has quietly been building up graphics-related R&D, reports Computerworld, noting that Microsoft employees will be presenting one out of every eight papers at SIGGRAPH 2007. And it's not a fluke — other recent Microsoft graphics-related developments include Photosynth, which has been discussed on Slashdot several times, as well as the Silverlight/Expression Studio graphics suite, which will compete with Adobe's Flash/Illustrator/Lightroom/Dreamweaver offerings. At SIGGRAPH, Microsoft will supposedly have demos of some new software including image deblurring tools and Soft Scissors, which "solves the vexing problem of how to cut and paste an image from one background to another if the image's edges — hair blowing in the wind, blades of grass — are very complex." Microsoft's competitors aren't sitting down. Adobe's CEO, calling Microsoft a "$50 billion monopolist," has questioned whether Silverlight will be compatible with non-Windows operating systems, and Google has also been building up its own graphics-related software products, such as the 3D modeling tool SketchUp, and Google Earth."
Google

Submission + - Apple and Google alliance strengthens (last100.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday's Apple press event saw the unveiling of new iMacs and major updates to the company's iLife and iWorks software suites. But it also provided further insight into the cosy relationship developing between Apple and Google, with greater integration between the two companies' product lines. What's new? iMovie 08 adds the ability to upload video direct to YouTube, and iWeb (Apple's web page creation software) now integrates with Google Maps and YouTube, along with support for Adsense. Combine these efforts with the existing iPhone tie-ins — Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail — along with AppleTV's recently added support for YouTube, and we can see how the Apple/Google alliance is strengthening.
IBM

Submission + - IBM and Novell promise big savings with Linux desk

Submitted by Herri Melton
Herri Melton writes: IBM and Novell on Tuesday announced two agreements designed to prop up both companies' open-source offerings, including Novell's desktop Linux. The two companies created a desktop software bundle they claim is US$300 to US$500 cheaper per user than the latest office worker software from Microsoft.
Space

Submission + - Largest-known planet befuddles scientists (msn.com)

Submitted by
langelgjm
langelgjm writes: "As mentioned today on the BBC World Report:

The largest planet ever discovered is also one of the strangest and theoretically should not even exist, scientists say. Dubbed TrES-4, the planet is about 1.7 times the size of Jupiter and belongs to a small subclass of "puffy" planets that have extremely low densities. The finding will be detailed in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal. "TrES-4 is way bigger than it's supposed to be," Mandushev told Space.com. "For its mass, it should be much smaller. It basically should be about the size of Jupiter and instead it's almost twice as big." "TrES-4 appears to be something of a theoretical problem," said study team member Edward Dunham, also of the Lowell Observatory. "Problems are good, though, since we learn new things by solving them."

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