If you want speed and power, choose Linux

Despite our best efforts over the last 10 years (and those of others all over the world. Ed.), Linux still accounts for a small percentage of desktop users – a couple of per cent at most. However, there’s one area where Linux is dominant – and that’s supercomputers.

The latest list of the world’s top 500 supercomputers has just been released and Linux runs 457 (91.4%) of the world’s fastest computers, followed in descending order by Unix with 30 (6%). Just one of the top 500 is running Windows – the giant on the desktop with over 90% of the world’s PCs – a decline from 4 in the last list (is this indicative of Windows’ lack of scalability? Ed.).

The message is clear: if you want speed and power, not to mention reliability and security, choose Linux.