Re: Debian and Scientific Linux
Stephen Liu sati...@yahoo.com writes: I ran Debian, RH, Fedora, CenOS, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, etc. before and am still running some of them. What is the major difference of SL from other Linux distro? Thanks In your list, SL is closest to CentOS. SL is a rebuild from RHEL sources with RH branding taken out. Nothing more nor less. As an example, in recent discussion it came up that SL will be left unaffected by RH's recent decision to obfusticate Linux source code as they do no kernel patching. There is also SLF (FNAL) and SLC (CERN) where each lab adds some packages on top of the base SL for internal consumption. From what I have seen these add-ons are largely configuration and Kerberos related. -Brett. pgpJ0Dw4NFI3T.pgp Description: PGP signature
Debian and Scientific Linux (was: Removal requests submitted for CERNLIB packages)
* Steffen Möller steffen_moel...@gmx.de [110305 12:31]: My hunch is that eventually we will see the efforts behind Scientific Linux merge with some major Linux distribution. And the reason most likely will be to prove to their funding parties of their impetus to give back to the world as much they can - independent from their hunt after some quark. This may be Fedora or Debian, but they will come, I am sure. That they have Scientific Linux and are Open Source already is per se already quite remarkable. Hi, it is important to understand that Scientific Linux is not just a Linux distribution build from scratch by Fermilab, CERN and other scientific labs. It is a RHEL clone, that is rebuild from the RHEL source rpms that are provided by Red Hat for free. The main goal of Scientific Linux is *not* to be as scientific as possible, e.g. in terms of the number of scientific software packages included in the distribution. (As a matter of fact, Debian comes with much, much more scientific software packages than SL does). The main goal of Scientific Linux is to be as close to RHEL as possible in terms of binary compatibility, i.e. identical kernels, identical library versions, everything build with identical compiler flags etc. The rationale behind this is that the majority of commercial software packages for science and engineering are tested and certified on enterprise Linux distributions only (in some cases: on RHEL only). So it is more likely that these packages will also run hassle-free on SL as compared to other distributions that are untested and uncertified by the vendors. This is indeed a valid point as most vendors reject any claims for support if their software runs (actually: doesn't run or doesn't run correctly) within an uncertified enviroment. If this happens to the users, they are usually at a complete loss, even if they've paid tens of thousands of Euros to the vendor for a maintenance contract. Scientific Linux aims to minimize these kind of risks for its users. What may be helping to speed up that process could be * identify a series of industries that should have some interest in the technologies maintained through CERN (car industry for crash tests maybe?, geologists?, astronomers? ..) and a blog about it * more personal contacts between our distro and CERN-affiliated scientists via conferences maybe? * some larger research group that decides to use Debian rather than scientific linux * maybe that group could also get some industry/research money to describe the CERNLIB and friends for regular industries * ...? I think it's not so much an issue of the awareness/acceptance of Debian among researchers. It's more an issue of the commercial vendor's perception of Debian as a suitable platform for their proprietary software. Best regards, Juergen -- GPG A997BA7A | 87FC DA31 5F00 C885 0DC3 E28F BD0D 4B33 A997 BA7A -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-science-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110305144609.ga4...@levin.highx.de
Re: Debian and Scientific Linux (was: Removal requests submitted for CERNLIB packages)
* Juergen Salk juergen.s...@gmx.de [110305 15:46]: That they have Scientific Linux and are Open Source already is per se already quite remarkable. [...] The main goal of Scientific Linux is *not* to be as scientific as possible, e.g. in terms of the number of scientific software packages included in the distribution. (As a matter of fact, Debian comes with much, much more scientific software packages than SL does). Just as an addendum in case someone is interested. This is a complete (!) list of scientific packages that come with Scientific Linux 6: jsalk@wattwurm:~ cat /etc/redhat-release Scientific Linux release 6.0 (Carbon) jsalk@wattwurm:~ yum groupinfo 'Scientific support' Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit Setting up Group Process Group: Scientific support Description: Tools for mathematical and scientific computations, and parallel computing. Default Packages: gnuplot units Optional Packages: atlas lapack mpich2 mpitests-mvapich mpitests-mvapich2 mpitests-openmpi mvapich mvapich2 numpy openmpi jsalk@wattwurm:~ That's it. It's simply what comes with RHEL6 anyway. They don't even have R in SL6 any more. So it is really a myth that Scientific Linux provides much extras for scientists. It's simply not their goal. It's all about compatibility with RHEL which makes SL so attractive as a common platform for huge computing environments. Best regards, Juergen -- GPG A997BA7A | 87FC DA31 5F00 C885 0DC3 E28F BD0D 4B33 A997 BA7A -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-science-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110305163433.gb4...@levin.highx.de
Re: Debian and Scientific Linux
On 03/05/2011 05:34 PM, Juergen Salk wrote: * Juergen Salk juergen.s...@gmx.de [110305 15:46]: That they have Scientific Linux and are Open Source already is per se already quite remarkable. [...] The main goal of Scientific Linux is *not* to be as scientific as possible, e.g. in terms of the number of scientific software packages included in the distribution. (As a matter of fact, Debian comes with much, much more scientific software packages than SL does). Just as an addendum in case someone is interested. This is a complete (!) list of scientific packages that come with Scientific Linux 6: jsalk@wattwurm:~ cat /etc/redhat-release Scientific Linux release 6.0 (Carbon) jsalk@wattwurm:~ yum groupinfo 'Scientific support' Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit Setting up Group Process Group: Scientific support Description: Tools for mathematical and scientific computations, and parallel computing. Default Packages: gnuplot units Optional Packages: atlas lapack mpich2 mpitests-mvapich mpitests-mvapich2 mpitests-openmpi mvapich mvapich2 numpy openmpi jsalk@wattwurm:~ That's it. It's simply what comes with RHEL6 anyway. They don't even have R in SL6 any more. So it is really a myth that Scientific Linux provides much extras for scientists. It's simply not their goal. It's all about compatibility with RHEL which makes SL so attractive as a common platform for huge computing environments. Right. Little is added: https://www.scientificlinux.org/distributions/6x/features/added https://www.scientificlinux.org/distributions/6x/features/differences And all the CERN physics environments are indeed not a part of it as it seems. And there is yet no ROOT or CERNLIB binary package for it but only for older versions :) http://root.cern.ch/drupal/content/production-version-528 http://cernlib.web.cern.ch/cernlib/version.html Thank you for pointing this out! Steffen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-science-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4d7289b6.9030...@gmx.de
Re: Debian and Scientific Linux (was: Removal requests submitted for CERNLIB packages)
HI folks, I heard SL sometimes but never test it. I ran Debian, RH, Fedora, CenOS, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, etc. before and am still running some of them. What is the major difference of SL from other Linux distro? Thanks B.R. SL From: Juergen Salk juergen.s...@gmx.de To: Steffen Möller steffen_moel...@gmx.de Cc: debian-science@lists.debian.org Sent: Sun, March 6, 2011 12:34:33 AM Subject: Re: Debian and Scientific Linux (was: Removal requests submitted for CERNLIB packages) * Juergen Salk juergen.s...@gmx.de [110305 15:46]: That they have Scientific Linux and are Open Source already is per se already quite remarkable. [...] The main goal of Scientific Linux is *not* to be as scientific as possible, e.g. in terms of the number of scientific software packages included in the distribution. (As a matter of fact, Debian comes with much, much more scientific software packages than SL does). Just as an addendum in case someone is interested. This is a complete (!) list of scientific packages that come with Scientific Linux 6: jsalk@wattwurm:~ cat /etc/redhat-release Scientific Linux release 6.0 (Carbon) jsalk@wattwurm:~ yum groupinfo 'Scientific support' Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit Setting up Group Process Group: Scientific support Description: Tools for mathematical and scientific computations, and parallel computing. Default Packages: gnuplot units Optional Packages: atlas lapack mpich2 mpitests-mvapich mpitests-mvapich2 mpitests-openmpi mvapich mvapich2 numpy openmpi jsalk@wattwurm:~ That's it. It's simply what comes with RHEL6 anyway. They don't even have R in SL6 any more. So it is really a myth that Scientific Linux provides much extras for scientists. It's simply not their goal. It's all about compatibility with RHEL which makes SL so attractive as a common platform for huge computing environments. Best regards, Juergen -- GPG A997BA7A | 87FC DA31 5F00 C885 0DC3 E28F BD0D 4B33 A997 BA7A -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-science-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110305163433.gb4...@levin.highx.de
Re: Debian and Scientific Linux (was: Removal requests submitted for CERNLIB packages)
On Sat, Mar 05, 2011 at 05:31:51PM -0800, Stephen Liu wrote: I heard SL sometimes but never test it. I ran Debian, RH, Fedora, CenOS, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, etc. before and am still running some of them. What is the major difference of SL from other Linux distro? Thanks As far as I have understood this thread SL is RH with some noise about it in scientific world. Kind regards Andreas. -- http://fam-tille.de -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-science-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110306072811.ga23...@an3as.eu
