November 16, 2007
by sjvn01
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The fastest computers are Linux computers

What do the BlueGene/L System, the BlueGene/P system and the New Mexico Computing Applications Center SGI system, based on the Altix ICE Integrated Compute Environment 8200 model, have in common?

First, they’re the top three fastest computers in the world, according to the latest Top 500 supercomputer list. Second, they all run Linux.

It’s not just the crème de la crème of supercomputers that run Linux, however. 85.2 percent of the Top 500 supercomputers run Linux. In other words, 426 of the world’s fastest 500 supercomputers depend on Linux.

Linux-powered supercomputers don’t require any particularly special version of Linux. New Mexico’s SGI Altix ICE, for example, run pretty much standard Novell SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) and Red Hat’s RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux).

One of the reasons why Linux owns HPC (high-performance computing) is that today’s supercomputers tend to be made up of clusters of multi-cored processors. Typically, these are dual-core CPUs. The one notable exception is that Intel’s quad cored Clovertown chips now power 102 of the Top 500. The vast majority of the fastest of the fast supercomputers, 354 systems, or 70.8 percent, now use Intel processors. Intel is followed by the AMD Opteron family, 78 system,s or 15.6 percent. After AMD, IBM takes third place with 61 systems, or 12.2 percent, that use IBM Power processors.

What does all this have to do with Linux? For starters, Linux runs natively on all these processors. The days when supercomputers from Cray and Control Data Corp. depended upon customized chips for their speed are long past. Today, speed comes from clustering standard chips into better and faster processor arrays and more effective parallel processing programming. For example, a single SGI Altix ICE 8200 rack can hold up to 512 common-as-dirt Intel Xeon processor cores. Today’s supercomputer processors are then tied together into a three-dimensional matrix by high-speed intraconnect fibre.

Linux has excelled at getting the maximum of performance from the minimum of commodity equipment for more than a decade now. In 1994, Thomas Sterling and Don Becker, at Goddard Space Flight Center’s CESDIS (Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences) created the first Beowulf Linux-powered clustered supercomputer. Even with that first system, which was made up of 16 486-DX4 processors connected by channel bonded Ethernet, it was clear you could deliver supercomputing performance with COTS (Commodity off the Shelf) based systems.

Since then, the story of supercomputing is really the story of Starling and Becker’s initial ideas, implemented with Linux and ever-faster COTS processors and networking, taking computers to ever-faster speeds. Thirteen years later, the BlueGene/L has achieved a Linpack benchmark performance of 478.2 Tflop/s (teraflops, or trillions of calculations per second).

That record won’t stay up for long, though. In just the last six months, to be a top 100 supercomputer, almost all of them Linux-powered, the entry point for the top 100 in March 2007 was 9.29 Tflop/s. Now, the slowest of the top 100 runs at 12.97 Tflop/s. With Linux, the sky, and perhaps Moore’s law, are the only limits for how fast computers can go.

A version of this story first appeared in Linux-Watch.

November 15, 2007
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu scores first major pre-installed server win

Ubuntu is extremely popular on the desktop, but it’s made comparatively little progress on servers. That’s about to change. Dell is expected to announce in the first quarter of 2008 that it has certified Ubuntu Linux for its server lines.

In an interview with Rick Becker, Dell Product Group’s vice president of solutions, Becker said that Dell is currently in the process of certifying Ubuntu for all its server lines. “But we are still several months away from announcing a certification. I’d say it’ll be announced in Q1 next year.”

Dell, however, is already selling pre-loaded Ubuntu on its servers. “At the moment, if a Dell customer asks us to pre-load Ubuntu on a server, we’ll do it for them. We do the same for Red Hat and SUSE. Our open-source support group will work with them as best they can, but most developers who ask for Linux probably know more than we do about Ubuntu. In fact, we may ask them for advice,” said Becker.

For now, Dell will direct customers who get pre-installed Ubuntu Linux on its servers to Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, and the Ubuntu community for support. “With Linux, it’s not like you can just pick up the phone [and get support], as you know. We can’t go too deeply into Ubuntu support at this time. We’ll pre-load and resell it, and support the hardware with our Dell support folks. We’ll refer people to the Ubuntu community if we need to,” said Becker.

After all, explained Becker, “We’re not into operating systems much. We’ll let the other companies handle those. We’re much more into providing the hardware and the management software, as well as optimizing how it runs on our servers, finding bugs, making sure the drivers work well, etc.”

Just a day earlier, Dell had announced that it had formally certified Sun’s Solaris on its servers. By March of next year, Dell, once an almost 100 percent Windows Server shop, will be offering pre-installed RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server), Solaris and Ubuntu Server to customers across its standalone, rack and blade server lines by the spring of 2008.

Gerry Carr, marketing manager for Canonical, said he was unable to comment directly on Dell’s decision since “although it is our software, these are entirely Dell internal matters so we cannot comment on them. As a good partner, until and unless we are given specific permission to talk about any initiative, then we have to defer to Dell.”

There is, however, no secret that Canonical has been working to get Ubuntu on the server and Dell’s servers in specific. Carr and other Canonical executives are on record as saying that Canonical has been working on persuading server OEMs, and Dell in particular, of the advantages of offering Ubuntu on their servers since this summer.

Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical’s CEO, added: “It would be superb for adoption–and would accelerate the positive trends we see already. We have indicators from several ISVs saying that Ubuntu is now their No. 1 or No. 2 server platform. These are more aggressive, newer ISVs, but even some proprietary heavyweights have started to come knocking about certification, support and joint sales, largely based on perceived momentum for the Ubuntu server platform among their customers.

“So I would be delighted if Dell took this step. I think it would be very reassuring to the people who are already deploying Ubuntu on the server; it would make Dell attractive to them as a supplier and it would catalyse another round of adoption by folks who require certification and support throughout their stack,” Shuttleworth said.

Dell was also the first major PC OEM to offer pre-installed Linux on desktop and laptop lines. Dell began this move with Ubuntu-powered desktops and notebooks in May 2007. Sources at Dell indicate that the company will soon be offering pre-installed Ubuntu on more desktop and laptop lines with the latest version of Ubuntu 7.10.

“We have built a very productive relationship with Dell on the consumer range, which does continue to mature, and will build on that as the market requires it. The Dell folks have a knack for tracking demand and responding,” Shuttleworth said.

Ubuntu’s first major server success was getting Ubuntu certified on Sun’s Fire T1000 and T2000 servers. Since then, Ubuntu has continued to work hard on its server support efforts. In July, for example, Canonical launched Landscape, its Web-based systems management program for Ubuntu servers and desktops, and the company has also expanded its support, training and certification efforts. In short, Canonical has been busy during 2007 setting up all the business infrastructure needed to support enterprise server customers.

As Carr said, there are no specific announcements to make at this time.

“Our position remains that we are keen to see Ubuntu on as many servers and as many desktops as we can get it onto,” he said.

With Dell’s forthcoming server certification, Canonical and Ubuntu are posed to make a major step forward in the server market.

A version of this story first appeared in Linux-Watch.

November 13, 2007
by sjvn01
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Is VMware a Dead Duck?

Today, VMware has about 80 percent of the virtualization market. By 2011, I think it may be lucky to have 8 percent of the market.

I believe that because everyone and their brother are now offering free or open-source virtualization of one kind or another. From the open-source world, youve got open-source software virtualization programs such as Xen OpenVZ, KVM, VirtualBox and UML (User Mode Linux) all coming on like gangbusters. And we all know what a little open-source operating system called Linux did to rival Unix/BSD operating system vendors, dont we?

That would be bad enough for VMware, but theres more. Theres a lot more competition coming. Microsoft, after blowing hot and cold on virtualization, has desired virtualization as an essential part of its future. Three of the Server 2008 line will include its Hyper-V hypervisor technology.

Citrix acquired XenSource, open-source Xens father company. Simon Crosby, a XenSource co-founder and now Citrixs CTO of virtualization and management, is more than ready to take on XenSource. In one of Citrixs first virtualization deals, Dell will be embedding the Citrix XenServer software suite across its PowerEdge server line.

Meanwhile, Red Hat has made virtualization the centerpiece of its latest Linux release: RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 5.1. Red Hat has also made it possible to use its management and provisioning program RHN (Red Hat Network) the master control for RHEL no matter where its running. Real hardware, virtual machine or somewhere on the Internet cloud, its all the same for administrators using RHN.

Last, but by no means least, Oracle, which uses RHEL as the basis for its Unbreakable Linux, has now announced its own version of RHELs Xen-based virtualization: Oracle VM. You can use it for free, or you pay for support if your IT staff needs help with it.

What does VMware plan to do about all this? Well, one thing is to add value-added services that use virtualization to help customers manage their infrastructure more effectively. Thats a nice idea, but I think its too little, too late.

Microsoft, Red Hat and Oracle are already baking virtualization infrastructure management, deployment, and all that jazz into their operating systems and applications. Where will VMware find any room for its offerings?

I honestly dont think theyll be able to find a home for their products within a few years. VMware could take a page from Xen and try the open-source route, but thats not VMwares way. Or, more to the point, its not its business plan.

I know people have suggested in the past that VMware should give the open-source approach a try, but those requests fell on deaf ears. Now, I dont think VMware, even if it were inclined to change its business model, is going to have the time to switch around.

When youve got so many powerful opponents moving in, and with so many of them offering their virtualization packages for free or already incorporated into their main products, I just cant see any company surviving the competition. Even one, like VMware, that has for years completely owned its market.

A version of this story first appeared in eWEEK.

November 13, 2007
by sjvn01
1 Comment

The little desktop Linux that came out of the blue

When a desktop Linux distribution suddenly becomes popular before even DistroWatch starts tracking it, you know you’ve got something special. One new Ubuntu-based distribution, gOS, has managed to capture users’ attention purely by word of mouth over the Internet.

gOS was introduced by Everex, a midtier PC vendor, in its inexpensive Green gPC TC2502 computer in late October. This cheap computer is sold for $198 at Wal-Mart stores and online at walmart.com.

The operating system is based, like so many desktop Linuxes such as Mint, on Ubuntu. In gOS’ case, it’s built on top of the newly released Ubuntu 7.10 Linux. It includes the usual array of open-source software that users have learned to expect from a Linux desktop such as popular applications from Firefox, Skype and OpenOffice.org. The one difference that Linux users will notice immediately about it is that it uses the Enlightenment E17 desktop interface with a Google-centric theme instead of the far more common KDE or GNOME desktops.

Google-centric? Yes, exactly so. According to the developers, “We recommend Google for just about everything … Gmail, Gtalk, Calendar, Maps, Docs and Spreadsheets and more. We’d like to welcome you to the idea that Google already is your ‘operating system.'” Paul Kim, Everex’s director of marketing, went even further, “Our dream is to combine Linux with Google and put it into the mass market.”

While Google does not have a formal partnership with either Everex or gOS, the search giant did see gOS before it was shipped. Google then approved Everex to bundle its Google toolbar with gOS’ browser.

With this in mind, the gOS applications are set to work with Google from the get-go. For example, clicking on the e-mail icon takes you to Gmail, the news icon sends you off to Google News, and the calendar “application” is Google Calendar. Even when there’s a choice of programs, such as OpenOffice for word processing and spreadsheets, gOS defaults to using Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Most of the commonly used applications are made available to users via a Mac OS-like dock at the bottom of the screen.

This is a Linux that’s designed with several specific purposes in mind. First, it’s not just built around Google; it’s built on Web 2.0 applications and the Internet. Next, it works with low-end hardware. This may be the first PC where a high-speed Internet connection is more important to its performance than a high-speed processor.

It’s also designed to be extremely easy to use. As a reviewer at LifeHacker concisely put it, “Imagine setting up a Google account for someone who’s not terribly keen on computers and then handing them over to a PC with gOS. Getting started from there couldn’t be easier.” While all of Ubuntu’s goodies are there for those who look for them, this system could be used by someone who’d never used any computer before.

In an interview with a Linux blog, gOS founder David Liu makes it clear that ease of use was at the top of his mind when he helped create gOS. “Basically it has to do with the Ubuntu community and vision. I like their mantra ‘Linux for human beings.’ I wanted to take it further, more like ‘Linux for human beings who shop at Wal-Mart’ (… ‘and who probably have never heard of Linux’).”

At this point, however, gOS’ developers are really looking more for other developers than for users. To that end, Everex has also made the TC20502’s motherboard available for hardware hackers and Linux programmers as the gOS Dev Board. This is a micro-ATX form-factor Via “PC-1” motherboard based on a 1.5GHz Via C7 processor.

gOS is available as a CD ISO image from several BitTorrent sites. Good places to start your download include The Green Company and LinuxTracker.

A version of this story appeared in DesktopLinux.

November 12, 2007
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Want to Rent a Movie on Your Apple TV?

Online movie rentals have long been available on both cable and satellite TV systems. There’s always been one little, well not so little, problem. Actually, renting the movie tends to be a pain.

You usually must call up the service, jump through an automated voicemail system, and, in some situations, then wait for the next time the movie starts on its designated channel before you can watch it. Wouldn’t it be better if you could just rent movies online the same way you do at a hotel? Click the remote a few times, pick a movie, hit OK and you’re watching your movie. This is how home movie renting should be, but it’s not.

Until now. It appears that Apple is getting ready to offer exactly that kind of service for the Apple TV or your computer using the latest version of iTunes: iTunes 7.5.

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November 7, 2007
by sjvn01
0 comments

VirtualBox: The best virtualization program you’ve never heard of

Quick, name some virtualization programs that run on Linux.

Time’s up.

If you’re like most people, you probably named VMware or Xen first. Many of you probably know of one or more of the following: Parallels, QEMU, KVM, Virtuozzo and OpenVZ. However, few of you probably know about VirtualBox. And chances are if you know about VirtualBox 1.502, you’re already running it because it manages the trifecta of being good, free and, sort of, open source.

Sort of? Here’s how it works. InnoTek, a software company in Stuttgart, Germany, has released both a proprietary and a GPLv2 open-source version of the program. The VirtualBox OSE (open-source edition) has a subset of the features of the proprietary version.

VirtualBox OSE is not crippleware. It’s as full-powered a virtualization program as you’ll find today. What it’s missing are additional features, not basic functionality. You can also use the proprietary version, without charge for personal and educational use and to evaluate it for possible business purchase.