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Some will say better hardware support. While Linux has better hardware support, i usually find this to be in the more exotic direction. I think it's simply dow

Some will say better hardware support. While Linux has better hardware support, i usually find this to be in the more exotic direction. I think it's simply down to Linux being where the money is. The big players (IBM, Dell, etc) are all actively promoting Linux, and trained personel is also somewhat easy to find. So Linux is "the beast you know". As for FreeBSD, it might be a technically better platform, but it is living in Linux' shadow. Personally i run FreeBSD for the excellent documentation, stability, features like ZFS, but nothing i run couldn't just as easily run on Linux.

alvil 9y ago
> While Linux has better hardware support Linux has wider, not better hardware support. If OpenBSD supports some hardware it simply works out of the box and is stable and rock solid.
- scardine 9y ago
  From the famous poster hanging on Facebook's office: "Done is better than perfect".
  - xxxdarrenxxx 9y ago
    Yes the snowball effect, exponential. Let's take this example. Today I woke up and said to myself. I'm gonna make a supercomputer. I will research and research, and come to a point where I could choose Linux or BSD for example. I read about one thing, and another and it all already has real examples running Linux (the top 500). So I can re-invent the wheel for god knows how long, or use what works for the top 500, which seems to be Linux. Decision easily made. Now the top 501 super computers run Linux. Who is brave enough to not actively accept the wheel that is. I probably wouldn't, especially with the fact that I have * no insurance * that a non-Linux super computer can hold it's own in real world applicable problem solving. Theoretically one might get there, but the pragmatism is strong.
jo909 9y ago
And hardware support does not only mean that it "somehow" works, but that the hardware vendor and the operating system vendor have certified this combination and will support you with all your problems for many many years. Edit: support as in commercial support with SLA etc
ska 9y ago
While Linux has better hardware support, i usually find this to be in the more exotic direction. HPC, and supercomputing in specific, tends to the exotic (particularly with busses)
aeorgnoieang 9y ago
> features like ZFS Linux has ZFS.
- wolrah 9y ago
  > Linux has ZFS. Kind of. You have the choice of the FUSE version that's legally free and clear but has obvious FUSE related performance limitations, or the kernel version which has great performance but is questionable at best from a legal standpoint because the CDDL is not compatible with the GPL. Canonical has decided they're willing to take the risk by bundling it in Ubuntu and so far it hasn't backfired on them, but there's good reason to believe that Oracle's lawyers may have something to say about it if they ever feel that ZFS-on-Linux is threatening any of their products.

alvil 9y ago

> While Linux has better hardware support Linux has wider, not better hardware support. If OpenBSD supports some hardware it simply works out of the box and is stable and rock solid.

scardine 9y ago
From the famous poster hanging on Facebook's office: "Done is better than perfect".
- xxxdarrenxxx 9y ago
  Yes the snowball effect, exponential. Let's take this example. Today I woke up and said to myself. I'm gonna make a supercomputer. I will research and research, and come to a point where I could choose Linux or BSD for example. I read about one thing, and another and it all already has real examples running Linux (the top 500). So I can re-invent the wheel for god knows how long, or use what works for the top 500, which seems to be Linux. Decision easily made. Now the top 501 super computers run Linux. Who is brave enough to not actively accept the wheel that is. I probably wouldn't, especially with the fact that I have * no insurance * that a non-Linux super computer can hold it's own in real world applicable problem solving. Theoretically one might get there, but the pragmatism is strong.

jo909 9y ago

And hardware support does not only mean that it "somehow" works, but that the hardware vendor and the operating system vendor have certified this combination and will support you with all your problems for many many years. Edit: support as in commercial support with SLA etc

ska 9y ago

While Linux has better hardware support, i usually find this to be in the more exotic direction. HPC, and supercomputing in specific, tends to the exotic (particularly with busses)

aeorgnoieang 9y ago

> features like ZFS Linux has ZFS.

wolrah 9y ago
> Linux has ZFS. Kind of. You have the choice of the FUSE version that's legally free and clear but has obvious FUSE related performance limitations, or the kernel version which has great performance but is questionable at best from a legal standpoint because the CDDL is not compatible with the GPL. Canonical has decided they're willing to take the risk by bundling it in Ubuntu and so far it hasn't backfired on them, but there's good reason to believe that Oracle's lawyers may have something to say about it if they ever feel that ZFS-on-Linux is threatening any of their products.