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Comment Re:No longer supports 32-bit architecture (Score 2) 66

Solaris has their own init deamon, SMF. *BSD has their own, in fact Linux is the only one who have used SysVinit for several years now.

Yes, I'm aware of SMF. However, *BSD's init isn't different from traditional init - in fact, it's arguably closer to traditional init than is SysVinit, given that *BSD init is modeled after Research UNIX init, which predates the AT&T run-level-/etc/inittab-based init. They both use rc scripts to launch non-Internet system services, unlike launchd and systemd.

Comment Re:No longer supports 32-bit architecture (Score 1) 66

Desktops and servers are hardly the entirety of the world. They don't even dominate it. Ever heard of ARM?

Yes, but I don't see any support for it, or any non-x86 architecture, in the DragonFly BSD source tree, so I don't think DragonFly BSD is that interested in embedded systems.

If Linus felt that way about 32-bit, there would be no Android, or it would have to develop its own kernel. Sheesh. FreeBSD and linux are found in routers and such with very weak CPUs.

So they've made different choices than DragonFly BSD.

Comment Re:No longer supports 32-bit architecture (Score 1) 66

Hey, now that the systemd nutters have broken Linux we can go back to calling Unix Unix instead of *nix.

At least one trademarked Unix uses a launch-on-demand-based init daemon, so it's not clear that the use of systemd-the-daemon is sufficient to make Linux not be a Un*x. Maybe systemd-the-software-bundle is sufficient.

Comment Re:No longer supports 32-bit architecture (Score 1) 66

What does Unix have to do with the Linux kernel? *nix is used for various "Unixes"

What's a "Unix"?

Is it a system based on AT&T code? If so, how much AT&T code has to still be in it.

Is it a system that passes the Single UNIX Specification test suite and whose supplier is thus allowed to license the "Unix" trademark?

Is it a system with a Unix-compatible API?

formerly also because of possible trademark issues. Linux is not one of them.

Linux is not one of the first types of OS in that list (if there are any bits of code AT&T made publicly available that are in Linux userlands, they're probably small enough not to count), and I know of no Linux distribution that's passed the SUS test suite (unless K-UX is a Linux distribution), so no Linux distribution I know of is one of the second types of OS in that list.

Linux is (or, rather, most Linux distribution are) most definitely one of the third types of OS, and people do speak of those OSes as "Un*xes", at least, even if "*nix" is used only for the first type of OS.

Comment Re:Put your money where your mouth is. (Score 1) 247

I can't verify the source, but this article suggests the machines will be Power8 based. Assuming these are the machines in question.

No, those machines are being built for the Department of Energy (DoE); NOAA, for whom the machines being discussed in this thread are being built, is part of the Department of Commerce.

Comment Re:Perspective (Score 1) 338

I hear ya buddy. We've got a President who doesn't want to do things democratically and we had a major, society-altering law passed whose authors have nothing but contempt for us, the American people.

Yes, a law such as this one, as passed in the GP's country, would have done a better job than the law in question.

Comment Re:Put your money where your mouth is. (Score 1) 247

So much wrong in just a few sentences.

First, IBM didn't sell it's HPC group, or its Power Systems group.

Correct.

The computer in question wouldn't be made using x86

If the computer in question is the same one mentioned in IBM's 2012 press release, not correct - that speaks of "IBM iDataPlex servers", which are x86 servers, not Power Architecture servers.

Comment Re:Amnesty International (Score 4, Informative) 95

Amnesty International has a terrible track record of attacking Western Democracies disproportionately more so than Dictatorships. I guess they like picking on easy targets, instead of actually trying to make a difference. When is the last time we heard them lobby government action in Africa or the Middle-East?

You mean like this, for Syria, or this, for Iraq, and archived campaigns such as this, for South Sudan, and this, for the Central African Republic?

Comment Re:Put your money where your mouth is. (Score 5, Informative) 247

As TFA mentions, IBM just sold its supercomputer division to a Chinese company (Lenovo).

What TFA says is:

IBM's decision to sell its x86 server business to Lenovo will turn the China-based company, in short order, into one of the largest HPC vendors in the world, according to IDC.

"Lenovo may become the number two HPC provider literally by the end of this year," said Earl Joseph, an analyst at IDC. Hewlett-Packard is number one. If not in the second position, Lenovo will be close to it.

The linked article says:

As a result of the deal, Lenovo is receiving a host of IBM products including its System x, BladeCenter and Flex System blade servers and switches, along with its NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers and associated software.

IBM, however, will still hold on to its System z mainframes, Power Systems, Storage Systems, Power-based Flex servers, PureApplication and PureData appliances.

I don't know what "[IBM's] supercomputer division" is, but it's not a division that solely develops and sells x86 servers; they also sell Power Architecture HPC systems.

However, at least in 2012, they spoke of iDataPlex servers for NOAA, so they sold that part of their supercomputer efforts to Lenovo. Whether they'll push for Power Architecture HPC systems for NOAA instead is another matter.

Comment Re:Elevator in the sky with diamonds (Score 3, Funny) 79

You wouldn't guess from the summary that the article title is "Going up! Cosmic elevator could reach space on a cable made of diamonds".

Breaking news: Slashdot submission headline less hyperbolic than TFA's headline.

In other news, Satan cuts ribbon to celebrate the opening of a new ski resort. Film at 11.

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