Supercomputing with FreeBSD?

[Dag-Erling Smørgrav]

Unga <unga888 at yahoo.com> writes:
> At a time Linux is either fading or struggling on desktop, and at a
> time Linux developers have to beg for OEMs for open source drivers
> that they never get, [...]

Linux is neither failing nor struggling on the desktop, nor do the major
distributions have any trouble running vendor-provided binary drivers.

> Success of the FreeBSD based desktop depends on the availability of
> drivers direct from OEMs, ie, from those who have the specs for it.
> Its up to the OEMs to decide whether to open source the drivers or
> not.  Its only the BSDs can offer this freedom of choice to OEMs, not
> definitely Linux, which legally demands them to open source only.

Linux does not "legally demand" open source drivers.

In fact, since Linux's kernel API and ABI are far more stable than
FreeBSD's, it is much easier to maintain binary drivers for Linux than
it is for FreeBSD.

> Another importance of this is, gaming developers are increasingly
> voice for 64-bit operating systems. Top end game developers find
> maximum 4GB RAM is a thing of the past, they need very much more.

Name one example...

Some game publishers have released 64-bit versions of selected games,
but nobody would even dream of releasing a 64-bit-only game.  It would
be suicide.  Even though > 90% of computers sold today are 64-bit
capable, most of them ship with a 32-bit operating system.

Considering the expense of shipping and supporting two versions of the
same game, I doubt 64-bit games will really take off until a sizeable
portion of mid-range computers ship with a 64-bit operating system.  I
suspect this won't happen for at least another two years.

DES
-- 
Dag-Erling Smørgrav - des at des.no