CERN Transitioning Computers To Debian After Being A Longtime RHEL Institution(www.phoronix.com)
24 pointsby thunderbong3 hours ago5 comments
  • M95Dan hour ago
    They could have used gentoo with their own binary package server. Maximum flexibility, including all compiler flags.
    • tosti41 minutes ago
      I had the exact same thought! One guy could maintain their OS. No forced compiler flags, internal binhost, everything else same as what they had.
      • M95D11 minutes ago
        There's even a thing called GRS (Gentoo Reference System) - a predefined Gentoo configuration that predictibly generates identical Gentoo installations. It's probably a chore to set up (that is, more than an ordinary Gentoo), but I expect it would make it very easy to maintain hundreds of installations based on that GRS.
  • theandrewbaileyan hour ago
    > CERN engineers had considered moving to CentOS Stream as a more natural pathway but ultimately they say "the straw that broke the camel's back" to abandon Red Hat Enterprise Linux for their industrial accelerator-control computers was the "-march=x86-64-v2" compiler flag default as "forced obsolescence" for old hardware.

    Incompatibility with x86-64-v2 means that CERN is running some older machines, over 15 years old:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#Microarchitecture_level...

    • sgarlandan hour ago
      > CERN has clarified that their focus with the migration is on their industrial accelerator-control computers while data centers and experimental computing remain on RHEL/AlmaLinux.

      For control systems, it’s perfectly reasonable to be using old stuff. Other than power consumption, you aren’t really losing anything, and I think that they famously have some other equipment there that consumes a touch more power than some old servers.

    • nairboon44 minutes ago
      That's a good thing, it means CERN is getting a lot of mileage out of their IT purchases. Buying new machines and deploying them at todays RAM prices? Looks like they are managing their budget responsibly.
    • OroPla30 minutes ago
      In other engineering fields systems are supposed to be supported for at least 60 years. Now that IT stuff has matured, it might be time to hold it to similar standards of longevity.
    • cassianolealan hour ago
      15 years is not old at all for a lot of applications!
    • account4221 minutes ago
      Is 15 years a lot?
    • Brian_K_Whitean hour ago
      What's your point?
  • skywhopper29 minutes ago
    Good, I wonder how much money they’ve wasted over the years paying for RHEL.
  • 3 hours ago
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  • kalayciburak13 minutes ago
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