Microsoft vows cluster OS upgrade will include Linux nod

Doesn't linux pretty much own the HPC arena anyway? How cute that microsoft wants to offer linux an easy way to submit jobs to windoze "compute clusters" - LOL, no thanks!

Well, actually I _do_ care, and here's the reason why:

When Microsoft does business in an area where they are the 'underdog' (of no importance at all), it seems they can make all sort of interoperability software anyone could ever need; look at the number of filesystems they support, and look how they even support Linux! Almost in no-time, it seems.

Whoever was still doubting if Microsoft not supporting Linux and (open) standards made by other companies was incompetence or unwillingness, now has the answer.

This M$ hpc push reminds me of their futile attempt to take on google search. I always thought that it was sound business practice to invest where you had a natural advantage. Apparently hubris negates this adage,

After all this talk about interoperability all MS can do is promise us something next summer. Maybe. Unless some problem comes up between now and then. It wouldn't be the first time MS didn't deliver on a claim they made. This is only slightly better than vaporware.

Well, the best it could do is what Volkswagen did with the Bugatti Veyron (but then I'm really overestimating Microsoft):

Build the most expensive product that's the best, as a prestige-project, just to see if they're capable of doing it (Volkswagen spent lots of millions on this one). It's a prestige-project, so it isn't meant to yield a profit; the primary profit it gives is it it 'shines' on their other more ordinary products too.

Nonetheless, the number of Ferrari's and Lamborghini's sold will always be bigger than the number of Veyrons sold, and contrary to Volkswagen, Microsoft will probably only have the most expensive product; but not the best or fastest. Nonetheless, if a tractor-maker can build supercars, then Microsoft should be able to build software for supercomputers, one would think.

Quoting:Microsoft should be able to build software for supercomputers

There's one problem with your logic. Volkswagen has some damn fine engineers capable of great work. Usually it's focussed on low cost cars and the like, but they're still good engineers. Just look at the Beetle :-) Following your logic implies that Microsoft employs good software engineers and programmers. So far I have seen no proof of that.

It also depends on the customization that needs to be done. That is, of course, a lot easier to do if you have access to the source code. Kind of difficult to customize when you have to reverse engineer the OS first...

Quoting:Following your logic implies that Microsoft employs good software engineers and programmers.

Well, they bought them from other companies I read. Probably, the people they hired know more about supercomputing than about Windows.

It's about in the same way Volkswagen hired F. Porsche to design the Beatle, I guess... Remember, the VW Beetle looked much more like a Porsche 356 than like a Volkswagen, and it's still possible to put an air-cooled Porsche-engine in a VW Beetle (it's however _not_ possible to put an ordinary VW engine in a Beetle!) So, what I'm trying to say is, there are somo smart engineers at Microsoft now, not being used to Microsoft at all, working day and night and cursing and asking themselves which nitwits wrote the Windows 2008 code they should integrate with their supercomputer code to make it look like it is Windows, but I question if the result can actually be _called_ Windows.

Any one else noticed the "pure" coincidence of this story with the recent news about the TOP500 HPC systems list that Windows practically has no presence? Well may be four or five.

Yep, pure coincidence.

A windows cluster?? OMG WTF are they KIDDING? You realize they left off the last part of the word "cluster"....

And, as a result, financial services firms are falling all over themselves to grab the Digipede code.

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Source code or EULA encumbered machine code?

M$ goes cluster .... I wonder if you need to give a three finger salute to each core?

> You realize they left off the last part of the word "cluster"....

LOL LMAO BBQ BOB