23 June 2009

GNU/Linux Tops TOP500 Supercomputers Again

The fact that GNU/Linux totally dominates the top 500 supercomputing list is hardly news, but the fact that it has managed to *increase* its market share yet further is.

Here are the results for June 2009:


GNU/Linux 443 (88.6%)
Windows 5 (1.0%)
Unix 22 (4.4%)

and here are the figures for six months ago:


GNU/Linux 439 (87.8%)
Windows 5 (1.0%)
Unix 23 (4.6%)

Notice that plucky little Windows, from that small and hopelessly out-gunned company up in Seattle has bravely managed to increase its share by precisely 0%: an impressive result considering the millions of dollars it has spent trying to break into this market.

Snarky? Moi?

Update: More details about the top 20, and GNU/Linux's dominance here.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you're being charitable :)
Micro$oft is a marketing company, not a technology company. Always was, always will be. I'm beginning to doubt if there are any innovative s/w folks working there anymore. They are the P.T. Barnum of OS vendors. So let's head for the egress, folks...we'll have to pay big time to get back in again.

Albert

Glyn Moody said...

Well, I think what's interesting is that Microsoft has set up a unit explicitly to break into this sector - in other words, to work on the technology. Seems they're not having much success, though...

Anonymous said...

Snarky? Toi?
Si, si.

The reason why MS couldnt break in the top 500 is those computers arent fast enough to run Vista.
But just you wait, till Vista 7 comes out, it will be lean enough to run on supercomputers, netbooks, you name it..
Promised.

Glyn Moody said...

You're right, but I think you mean the forthcoming Vista 7 Millennial Edition (ME)...

Unknown said...

I think you're being charitable :)
Micro$oft is a marketing company, not a technology company. Always was, always will be.


That is a common fallacy. Microsoft is as incompetent at marketing as it is at operating system design, and always has been. What Microsoft is good at is back room deals, to preclude the installation on anyone else's software.

Now Apple is a marketing company. They come up with great ads. You'll never see anything like the MSN butterfly ad from Apple.

Lam said...

Actually, I find these numbers to be extremely disappointing from a GNU/Linux viewpoint.

Why? Because GNU/Linux cannot win over Windows. See, it can only rip away market share from Unix, and that means less and less in today world.

Remember, GNU/Linux is a Unix clone, thus to win over Unix market share is easy: just being better and cheaper. How about Windows? Yes, it holds tiny market share, but it does hold. Imagine on desktop market! If Windows merely holds its market share, that's disastrous!

Glyn Moody said...

@Magice: well, I'd agree if the Windows share were significant, but at 1% it's almost a rounding error. I'd turn it around: even at such low levels, Windows can't even increase its share.