Actually, to me this issue about scalability is not important at all. I have a Quad core. For that Linux will do great. Linux will do great for any machine up to (and probably more than) 8 CPUs which is more than I ever will lay my hands on. So, this talk about a kernel being scalable to SUNs new upcoming 2048 threads machine - is nothing I ever will notice. Suffice to say, both OS will do great in terms of scalability for any normal machines we can ever come across. And when 8 CPUs machines will be common, the Linux kernel developers have moved Linux boundaries to 32-64 CPUs, which we as normal users never will touch for a very long time. And when we do, the Linux boundaries have moved to 128-256 CPUs. etc. Therefore, this is not really important. Other factors than scalability should decide when choosing OS instead, I think.
Regarding if only a single (Solaris) binary to be considered as scalable or if modifying the (Linux) code to suit different machines to be considered as scalable. If you need to recompile and modify, then to me it is not scalable - because - I want to learn only one technology and one behaviour. If the different Linux kernels differ much, then I have to learn about them each. "Oh, now I am at cluster, then I must remember these things.... Oh, now I am at a desktop PC, then I must remember these things.... etc". Not only do you have to learn the different kernel versions, but within the same kernel version the kernels can behave differently and have different weak points and strong points. This messes my poor head. In Solaris, I only learn one kernel. And it works for whatever I want to do. I want to learn one technique very well and become a guru on it. It is easier for my poor head and memory. This is the reason, it is important to me personally to have only one kernel with only one behaviour no matter what you do.
I remember, I learned C64, then Amiga, MS-DOS, Win3.11, Win95, WinNT, WinXP. I am tired of all these techniques I learn, that they die a couple of years later. I must relearn each time. If I instead had poured all these countless hours of learning each OS into one and only, like Unix who has existed for 40 years - I would have become an expert. Now I stick with Unix and dont have to relearn from scratch all the time. Of course I have to update my knowledge, but that is less work than relearn from scratch. Going from Windows to FreeBSD -> relearn from scratch. Going from Unix to Linux -> no need to relearn from scratch, only update pieces of your knowledge.
Regarding if only a single (Solaris) binary to be considered as scalable or if modifying the (Linux) code to suit different machines to be considered as scalable. If you need to recompile and modify, then to me it is not scalable - because - I want to learn only one technology and one behaviour. If the different Linux kernels differ much, then I have to learn about them each. "Oh, now I am at cluster, then I must remember these things.... Oh, now I am at a desktop PC, then I must remember these things.... etc". Not only do you have to learn the different kernel versions, but within the same kernel version the kernels can behave differently and have different weak points and strong points. This messes my poor head. In Solaris, I only learn one kernel. And it works for whatever I want to do. I want to learn one technique very well and become a guru on it. It is easier for my poor head and memory. This is the reason, it is important to me personally to have only one kernel with only one behaviour no matter what you do.
I remember, I learned C64, then Amiga, MS-DOS, Win3.11, Win95, WinNT, WinXP. I am tired of all these techniques I learn, that they die a couple of years later. I must relearn each time. If I instead had poured all these countless hours of learning each OS into one and only, like Unix who has existed for 40 years - I would have become an expert. Now I stick with Unix and dont have to relearn from scratch all the time. Of course I have to update my knowledge, but that is less work than relearn from scratch. Going from Windows to FreeBSD -> relearn from scratch. Going from Unix to Linux -> no need to relearn from scratch, only update pieces of your knowledge.
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