June 23, 2009, 8:43 am
The Windows’ fan club likes to point out that Windows is far more popular than Linux. The reason for that has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with monopoly. Nothing shows that better than the semi-annual TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. In the latest ranking, where performance is everything and nothing else matters, Windows is stalled out at the starting line, and Linux is lapping the field.
Specifically, Linux has increased its already¬†substantial supercomputer market share¬†to 88.6%. Linux is followed by hybrid Unix/Linux systems with 5.8%; Unix, mostly IBM’s AIX, with 4.4%; and running close to last, Windows HPC (high-performance computing) with 1%. Only BSD, with a single representative on the list, trails Windows.
