..::B:R:A:D::..

While catching up on some news reading this weekend I came across this interesting headline: “Microsoft Tries to Reclaim HPC Market Share from Linux“. I knew that MS had been working for the last several YEARS trying to create a product to enter the HPC market and it seems they are finally ready to release the fruits of their labor, that’s not what’s interesting. What’s interesting is that the article says they are “…anticipating it will take back market share from Linux, which currently dominates the space.” Take back? I never realized they had ANY market share in HPC.

So, let’s see what kind of market share Microsoft currently has. As rule of measurement we will take a look at the oft cited “TOP500 Supercomputing Sites” website. Since in it’s own words the site was created to “provide a reliable basis for tracking and detecting trends in high-performance computing” I think this will be more than adequate to prove the point. Looking at the “Operating System Family” summary we will see that Linux holds 371 of the top 500 spots. Windows on the other hand has only but 1 lonely site. These numbers appear to be the most recent and are labeled as of Nov. 2005. Okay, so that tells us what the current market share looks like but apparently they are “taking back” market share, leading one to believe they at one time had a significant amount.

Well, if we go back to 2000 maybe Windows had a dominance in the HPC market then given that the uber-reliable Windows 2000 server should have come out around then. Nope, In 06/2000 Windows held exactly NO positions in the top500 list. Hmm, actually Windows 2000 server probably didn’t come out in 2000 since none of Microsofts OS’s have ever been release “on time”. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and take a look at the numbers for 2001. A year later in 06/2001 Windows, again, has NO spots on the top500 list. Maybe there was a slow uptake to Server 2000, since NT 4 Server was such a great system. Now we are getting some where. By 11/2001 Microsoft Windows has it’s first sighting on the top500 list with 1 site!

So as you can see with this little jog through the top500 list Microsoft Windows market share in HPC is NILL, NOTHING, NONE, NON-EXISTANT, NADA. You can’t take back something you never had!

I am sure with it’s $469/node price tag Linux has a lot to be worried about. I wouldn’t be surprised if by 2007 Windows holds 2, maybe 3, whole spots on the top500 list.

Interestingly right after I read that article I saw these next two just minutes afterwards:

• Cray Lands $200 Million Linux-Opteron Super Deal with DOE
• Linux Networx Taps SilverStorm for Supercomputing Project

Well, we all can dream can’t we…

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 17th, 2006 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Other OS, Linux, General. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.