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A Return to Linux on the Workstation

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Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#31

Post by DeepDuh »

derleth wrote: post #29

So... what's a 'workstation' these days? Every desktop machine has the 3M: (at least) a megapixel display, (at least) a megabyte of RAM, and (at least) a 1 MIPS processor, and that's in addition to little things like graphics cards and Ethernet (and/or WiFi) hardware, both of which were defining features at one point. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M_computer Does the definition of workstation come down to what the co…

I'm torn apart whether this is a good or a silly question. On one hand it's an interesting nitpick on the change of labels / language, on the other hand it feels like Gordon E. Moore should poke you a bit with a stick or something.

In other words: Labels change, especially in IT. Duh?

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#32

Post by derleth »

DeepDuh wrote: post #31
derleth wrote: post #29

So... what's a 'workstation' these days? Every desktop machine has the 3M: (at least) a megapixel display, (at least) a megabyte of RAM, and (at least) a 1 MIPS processor, and that's in addition to little things like graphics cards and Ethernet (and/or WiFi) hardware, both of which were defining features at one point. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M_computer Does the definition of workstation come down to what the co…

I'm torn apart whether this is a good or a silly question. On one hand it's an interesting nitpick on the change of labels / language, on the other hand it feels like Gordon E. Moore should poke you a bit with a stick or something. In other words: Labels change, especially in IT. Duh?

That doesn't answer my question, which is: What has the label changed to?

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#33

Post by DeepDuh »

derleth wrote: post #32
DeepDuh wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm torn apart whether this is a good or a silly question. On one hand it's an interesting nitpick on the change of labels / language, on the other hand it feels like Gordon E. Moore should poke you a bit with a stick or something. In other words: Labels change, especially in IT. Duh?

That doesn't answer my question, which is: What has the label changed to ?

I'd look at it like this: A workstation is what you use when computation power and/or memory bandwidth is a limiting factor of your work. This holds true for:

- developers of software with long compilation time

- 3d animators / professional video editors

- scientists that want to run simulations

- engineers that want to run simulations

For these people, a computer is never fast enough and they get a tangible benefit for every speedup - which is why they always have the best performing gear. And the (multicore) performance of the best gear is always [CONSUMERGRADE_PC * X].

I'd set X=3 and then you have yourself a workstation. (For example 16 core Xeon vs. 4 core i5.

For that reason I don't think it really makes sense to define workstation in an absolute number of Gigaflops/Hertz/Byte. It's just the cutting edge of desktop computing that's still feasible for work (e.g. overclocked CPUs to 8Ghz with liquid nitrogen cooling don't count, neither do machines with say more than 2kW heat - that's when you need a computing cluster).

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#34

Post by gaius »

pjmlp wrote: post #8
gunmetal wrote: post #4

Even a Joyent tech admits Ubuntu is a more pleasant experience. Thought this was interesting, but all his points are not isolated to the desktop experience. Pretty much all the reasons he switched to linux affect the building and maintenance of servers too. I think it just boils down to community support.

I will read the article later, when I have more time, but many geeks that only know Linux and eventually BSD, have no idea how painful commercial UNIX systems can be. Several of our customers have HP-UX systems that look like plain System V systems straight out of the 70's.

Commercial systems operate under constraints that Linux didn't have until recently, such as needing to maintain backwards compatibility. This went all the way from not changing the interface for people who used workstations for highly skilled works but were not "geeks" (e.g. CAD guys), to sticking with old shells (e.g. Sun stuck with ksh long after Linux had bash). Witness the furore over the GNOME team changing things a couple of weeks ago...

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#35

Post by derleth »

DeepDuh wrote: post #31
derleth wrote: post #29

So... what's a 'workstation' these days? Every desktop machine has the 3M: (at least) a megapixel display, (at least) a megabyte of RAM, and (at least) a 1 MIPS processor, and that's in addition to little things like graphics cards and Ethernet (and/or WiFi) hardware, both of which were defining features at one point. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M_computer Does the definition of workstation come down to what the co…

I'm torn apart whether this is a good or a silly question. On one hand it's an interesting nitpick on the change of labels / language, on the other hand it feels like Gordon E. Moore should poke you a bit with a stick or something. In other words: Labels change, especially in IT. Duh?

> Labels change, especially in IT. Duh?

No, not unless you really just want to be rude.

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#36

Post by antihero »

donniezazen wrote: post #20

After using Archlinux for a year I am back on Ubuntu 12.10. Ubuntu 12.10 is an absolute bliss. It is a complete hassle free desktop environment. If Ubuntu had support of hardware and software developers, it is definitely ready for some serious competition. On the other hand, I am not so happy with Linux kernel which is being updated every 3 months yet it performs terribly when it comes to power management. There is a…

Weird, I'm on Arch and it's no more hassle than Ubuntu. Do you use a custom WM/etc?

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#38

Post by donniezazen »

antihero wrote: post #36
donniezazen wrote: post #20

After using Archlinux for a year I am back on Ubuntu 12.10. Ubuntu 12.10 is an absolute bliss. It is a complete hassle free desktop environment. If Ubuntu had support of hardware and software developers, it is definitely ready for some serious competition. On the other hand, I am not so happy with Linux kernel which is being updated every 3 months yet it performs terribly when it comes to power management. There is a…

Weird, I'm on Arch and it's no more hassle than Ubuntu. Do you use a custom WM/etc?

I have tried several WM from DWM, Awesome to XFCE4 and Gnome. There are things that Archlinux community doesn't want to do as a part of their philosophy. I am not saying it is wrong. I just like already set up distribution for now.
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