Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Another first in Linux hall of fame

The apex organization that played the most major role in experiments leading to existance of the 'god particle' a.k.a, the Higgs Boson particle, privately and publicly lauds the part of three factors greatly helping in the process - Linux, coffee and C++.

An unnamed physicist at CERN has quoted "I need to mention how Linux(Specifically Scientific Linux and Ubuntu) had a vital role in the discovery of the new particle at CERN" in a recent 'Ubuntu Vibes' article.

But those watching the High Performance Computing scene closely will not be amused at this as it's not exactly any secret that Linux dominates the world of high-performance computing."We use it every day in our analyses, together with hosts of open software, such as ROOT, and it plays a major role in the running of our networks of computers (in the grid etc.) used for the intensive work in our calculations", the officials at CERN adds.

CERN website has a recently featured support site for Scientific Linux at the address : http://linux.web.cern.ch/linux/

Then again, an anonymous scientist noted "The most important members of the team: the folks who made coffee, those who managed linux OS and apps and finally who codes in C++"

Robert Pogson, a noted blogger wrote "Then, too, there's the fact that "the data-analysis needed at CERN for the Higgs boson is immense," he pointed out. "No scientist at a time like this wants an OS that wants to re-re-reboot, slow down, welcome malware or phone home." In short, "the fact that that other OS charges more to do less makes the choice of OS for number-crunching easy," Pogson concluded. "Go, GNU/Linux!"

In fact the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG), which combines the power of more than 170 computing centres in 36 countries, is based on Scientific Linux. You can get a live real-time information of the worldwide LHC data processing mapped on top of Google Earth from here:
http://dashb-earth.cern.ch/dashboard/doc/guides/service-monitor-gearth/html/user/index.html

It is felt by everyone that when talk is of serious scientific computing, linux is the standard and is practically synonymous to High Performance Computing.Sadly,as we are now aware, the Higgs Boson is not a 'God particle' any more than any other particle can be said to have a divine connection; but it might be the elusive phenomenon of nature that helps cement Linux's reputation as science's best friend. 

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