Linux at 20: New Challenges, New Opportunities

Guest post by snydeq 2011-08-29 Linux 6 Comments

InfoWorld’s Neil McAllister examines the challenges and opportunities ahead for Linux as it enters its third decade, and finds that the rise of cloud computing and mobility could elevate the open source OS to a level of unprecedented dominance. ‘The last 20 years haven’t always been easy. Linux has made a few enemies, Microsoft foremost among them. It has faced its share of challenges, too, both technical and legal, and there are more hurdles ahead. Nonetheless, as Linux enters its third decade, its opportunities have never been greater. Computing is changing, and Linux is not only benefiting from this change but is enabling it. Thanks to a shift beyond the PC, Linux is poised to become more than just an OS, but one of the most transformative forces in computing history â€” and it’s happening right under everyone’s nose.’

6 Comments

2011-08-30 1:19 am

lemur2
The 20-year story of Microsoft and Linux

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lq8fzv4Ur71r1a7kno1_…

2011-09-03 1:50 pm

zima
What, server errors / bad links? ;p

2011-08-30 4:29 am

tuma324
Remove double post.

Edited 2011-08-30 04:31 UTC
2011-08-30 4:31 am

tuma324
Mobility is but one frontier for Linux to conquer. Parallel processing is another. Linux works well on today’s multicore chips, but as tomorrow’s chips grow to 48 cores or more, today’s Linux kernel won’t be able to keep up.

Between mobility and cloud computing, Linux has an unprecedented opportunity to become a dominant force the likes of which IT has never seen. But as it enters its third decade, Linux’s greatest challenge may be to avoid becoming a victim of its own success. As the open source OS has matured and stabilized and its code base has grown in complexity, Linux kernel hacking is losing its allure for new developers, and recruitment may soon become a top priority if it is to overcome the hurdles ahead.

Linux’s growing pains are over, but its grown-up problems have just begun. Oh, to be young again.

What a bunch of bullshit and FUD.

Linux can do 4096 cores (or even more) right now, unlike Windows.

2011-09-01 10:04 pm

MrVain
What a bunch of bullshit and FUD.

Linux can do 4096 cores (or even more) right now, unlike Windows.

How do you know Linux can scale to 4096 cores? There exist no such big servers. Please post links to such big servers, you will not succeed in finding such big servers.

The biggest servers have at most 64 cpus, and they are sold by IBM, Sun/Oracle, HP. The biggest and newest IBM Mainframe z196 has 24 cpus. The previous generation IBM Mainframe z10 had 64 cpus. So, good luck in finding a server with more than 64 cpus. Some years ago, there was a 144 cpu big Solaris server.

Yes, I know that SGI Altix has 1024 cores or whatever, but that Linux server is just a cluster. A rack of nodes on a fast switch.

There are no big SMP servers (one fat large server) with more than 64 cpus today.

But there are big HPC servers (many nodes in a cluster) with 1024 cores and more. For instance, everyone knows that Google use Linux. Well, Google runs Linux on a large Cluster with 900.000 servers:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/01/google_server_count/

Google does not have a large fat server with 900.000 cpus. Large servers bigger than 64 cpus, are just a cluster in a rack that fill up a room.

So, no, Linux has severe problems scaling beyond 32 cores when we talk SMP. In HPC, Linux can scale up to 900.000 servers in a cluster.

2011-08-30 4:52 pm

jbauer
Yet another “no one in their right mind wants to use Linux on their PCs so the PC must die” story.