Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[~Stack~]

On 2/28/20 5:00 AM, Paddy Doyle wrote:
> We're a university HPC centre.

[snip]

> Plus the stability of the longer RHEL life cycle has been a big
> plus for stable clusters (*).
> 
[snip]
> 
> (*) although more recently some people are asking more and more for the
> latest and greatest.. yes, we're looking at you ML and AI! :)

A combination of Singularity [1] and Spack [2] has kept my ML/AI users
quite happy, though there is a learning curve.

Singularity is pretty easy to grasp, it's just extra steps if the user
wants to build their own but it's been great because once they do they
jump on board the "reproducible science" aspect pretty quick. Greg
Kurtzer and his team are doing a great job with Singularity.

Spack is trivial if what they want is already there, a bit more
challenging if they have to add programs to it. Fortunately they've
offered full day training at Super Computing every year. The tutorial
section hasn't been posted yet for 2020, but here is their 2019 tutorial
and resources are online. [3]

[1] https://sylabs.io/singularity/
[2] https://spack.io/
[3]
https://sc19.supercomputing.org/?post_type=page=3479=tut164=sess194

Hope this helps. I understand the sysadmin pain in trying to meet the
rapidly evolving ML/AI researcher demands. :-)

~Stack~



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Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Paddy Doyle]

We're a university HPC centre.

We've been using SL since at least SL4 (before that was before my time),
and currently mostly on SL7 with a few SL6 still dotted around on older
clusters.

Certainly in the past there was a requirement to have a RHEL-like OS for
certain core software packages. Probably less so now, but most of our
tooling is still based around SL so there hasn't been a big impetus to
change. Plus the stability of the longer RHEL life cycle has been a big
plus for stable clusters (*).

On non-cluster nodes we have a mixture of some other OS's.

We're very thankful for all of the work the SL team has put in over the
years!

And to everyone on this list who has been so generous with their time.

In terms of the future, we're mainly focussed on CentOS 8 as it should be
most similar to our current deployment tools, and since that's where CERN
etc are going it seems like a good option. No doubt there will be teeting
pains, but life has to be interesting, right. :)

Paddy

(*) although more recently some people are asking more and more for the
latest and greatest.. yes, we're looking at you ML and AI! :)

On Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 06:09:27AM -0800, Peter Willis wrote:

> Hello,
>  
> The variation in uses of t Scientific Linux is quite interesting.
> As mentioned before, we are using it for fluid dynamics modelling and 
> oceanography, in the context of parallel computing with OpenMP and MPICH.
>  
> I am curious to see what everyone else have been using it for.
>  
> Perhaps, if it’s not too much trouble, people on the list might give a short 
> blurb about how they use it and why.
> Maybe also mention others they know who are using it who are not on this list.
>  
> Peter
>  
>  
>  
> >I'm no scientist, just an electronics guy who do a lot of research in RF (as 
> >hobby, mostly testing antennas for ham radio in VHF bands) from Argentina.
> > 
> >Fot SL the most "well done" linux distribution, for people who simply knows.
> > 
> >Will look forward to move to another distribution.
> > 
> > 
> >>I'm an independent electronics inventor, heavily dependent
> >>on both competent software and competent laboratory science,
> >>both for the knowledge I depend on and the tools I use to
> >>transform that knowledge into products and services for
> >>my customers.  
> >>

-- 
Paddy Doyle
Research IT / Trinity Centre for High Performance Computing,
Lloyd Building, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Phone: +353-1-896-3725
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.tchpc.tcd.ie_=DwIFaQ=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=7eQbAmvcrvtsbWH90yHv8gKKZkdTRKgrn1hq9Br2S8M=blSs6NvBcMwBsnqPmuBiKlRs_FQCvvhsilYiQ2-X8ls=
 

Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Ken Teh]

Didn't plan on chiming in but Larry's post tugged.

I started with Slackware in '93, kernel 1.3, looking for an cheap X11 
workstation alternative to the then $15k a pop SunOS workstations, of which we 
could only afford 2.  I proposed to my division director to let me buy 12 
Pentium 90's at $2k a pop to deploy this new thing called a linux workstation. I 
recall a committee of two, one from our scientific computing division, who 
advised against it, saying there was no vendor backing. Lucky for me, my 
division director took a chance. Well, the rest, they say, is history.


Like Larry I switched to RedHat when they came in boxes. I stumbled on SL when I 
started working on ROOT. Version 0.6 then. There was this thing called 
FermiLinux and when Redhat stopped selling boxes and wanted a subscription for 
RHEL, I switched us over to SL.


Remember Connie's photos when SL started installing?

The SL mailing list is fantastic resource. I suspect like all good things it 
will also come to an end. I hope it lasts a little longer, at least till I 
retire, so we can all bitch about CentOS 8 and commiserate together the loss of 
SL. Lol.




On 2/25/20 1:56 PM, P. Larry Nelson wrote:

Brett Viren wrote on 2/25/20 8:15 AM:

"Peter Willis"  writes:

Perhaps, if it’s not too much trouble, people on the list might give a short 
blurb about

how they use it and why.


Not quite a short blurb, but not too long either.

I am retired now (nearly 4 years) after nearly 50 years in the IT biz - 44 of 
those at UIUC and 20 of those as an IT Admin for our local HEP group, and I can 
tell you that there are two people who made my life immeasurably better.  So I 
just want to toot their horn.


Troy Dawson and Connie Sieh of FermiLab.  Here's a great interview with Troy 
that will answer a lot of questions as well as elucidate why we went with SL.
(I suspect the following will get transmogrified by Fermi's Proof Point URL 
secret encoder ring)


https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__old.montanalinux.org_interview-2Dtroy-2Ddawson-2Dscientific-2Dlinux-2Djune2011.html=DwIDaQ=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=p76IJCxmwsNBSv-yK1gjd90aDixiH0QGmAOt17f6Gf0=_1X0fjomFwROuoTUSK43cCqxlIRTvLj6oFiyBnixFAE= 

Alas, much to my initial dismay, Troy announced in 2011 he was going to work for 
RedHat, but Pat Riehecky jumped in to those big shoes (Thanks Pat!).  I would be 
remiss if I didn't also mention Urs Beyerle and his work on the SL Live 
CDs/DVDs.  And, of course, the (then) smallish but amazingly helpful SL user 
community on this list.


After infuriatingly frustrating and hapless encounters with RHEL support on even 
the simplest of issues, being able to have one-on-one interactions with Troy, 
Connie, and Urs (and other users on the list) was like stepping out of a cold 
dark cave onto a warm sun drenched beach. [not hyperbole]


Our journey (in case you're interested and still reading) went something like:

Late 90's and early 2000's - SunOS (expensive hardware, expensive maintenance 
contracts, expensive licensing). Start playing with this new toy Redhat 2.0. 
(spare desktop hardware, almost free software, no licensing).  Then Redhat 3, 
then 4 - now seeing that we can replicate all services from SunOS to RH.
No longer a toy.  Then RH 5 and 6, 7. 8, 9 and End-of-Life.  LHC was ramping up 
and about to spew petabytes of ATLAS experiment data.  Time to start building 
racks of storage farms and compute clusters.  Switch to RHEL.  But with that 
came confusing and frustrating licensing plus the aforementioned support snafus.


Then an epiphany - one of our engineers was collaborating with another 
institution on loading linux onto embedded processors as part of the Dark Energy 
Survey telescope and came to me for linux advice.  They were using a free linux 
installation from CERN called Scientific Linux (SLC).  "Really!"  He said 
FermiLab had a similar version (SLF) but that they chose SLC for whatever 
reason. He said it's the same as RHEL. "Really!" (again)  I found FermiLab's 
website for SLF and the rest, they say, is history!


We started with RHEL3, moved to SL4, then SL5 (my favorite) and wound up at SL6. 
  SL7 was out and the HEP community was transitioning to it when I retired so I 
didn't have to deal with it.  :-)


Anyways, now back to retirement.
- Larry

Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Stephan Wiesand]

Bonjour,

> On 25. Feb 2020, at 10:49, Winnie Lacesso  
> wrote:
> 
> This was posted to SLU in 2012 but didn't get any actual answers. It's
> reposted in case anyone can firmly say (or no) that the situation has
> changed or is the same. *Is* it true that CentOS still have a period when
> they do *not* release security updates for earlier OS dot releases, thus
> leaving those earlier dot releases vulnerable?

They generally don't release updates for earlier dot releases, only for the
latest minor CentOS release that was published. This hasn't changed.

There has been some improvement regarding the gap between a RHEL minor release
and completion of the corresponding CentOS one though, by introducing the
"continuous release" repository.

See 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__wiki.centos.org_AdditionalResources_Repositories_CR=DwIFAg=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=LxbR4yysOdbJMOaCGY2Kb9EjwR9OrU9BXf9boXHIq9k=g09K_rNgLAQ74tt0xdcRHuJjDrDYtcRInBge7vfRN6Q=
  for details.

But you still have to update to the latest dot release as soon as it's published
to continue receiving package updates.

It's also still true that CentOS does not distinguish security updates from
bug fixes and enhancements.

> (Security is one reason we stuck with SL with Super-Gratitude to them!)

Indeed the SL team at FNAL has been doing an outstanding job providing
security updates for their minor releases. I'm afraid the only equivalent
replacement for SL is a RHEL subscription with the EUS add-on.

Hope this helps
Stephan

> My security colleagues said:
> 
> My reading of the thread surrounding that quote is that CentOS *do* 
> release security patches between "dot" releases, but that they stop in the 
> period between Red Hat releasing an update and the time that they have 
> pushed that update out themselves. Thus, 5.3 has been released by both Red 
> Hat and CentOS and is receiving updates, but when 5.4 comes out from Red 
> Hat, all their security updates will not necessarily work on 5.3 so CentOS 
> stops releasing them. As soon as CentOS gets 5.4 out of the door, the 
> updates will start again (and they will have rolled the missing ones into 
> their 5.4 release). 
> 
> It is significant though (i.e. potentially a couple of months without
> security fixes when a new CentOS point release is being prepared), and
> something I wasn't aware of. At the very least, CentOS admins need to be
> aware of this until and unless the policy changes.
> 
> 
> Original post: PS I haven't verified the links are still valid! (sorry)
> 
> In 2009 I was surprised to learn from this useful+informative SL-User's 
> list, that CentOS does not always release security updates in a timely 
> manner: 
> 
> http://listserv.fnal.gov/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0908=scientific-linux-users=0=0=4484
> "It has come to light that the maintainers don't/can't release interim  
> security updates while they are rebuilding a new dot release from 
> upstream" 
> 
> http://listserv.fnal.gov/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0908=SCIENTIFIC-LINUX-USERS=R7106=-3
> "For example, once Redhat releases a point release, an attacker knows that
> any subsequent errata can be used against a CentOS box at least until the 
> CentOS project releases the corresponding point release. It is quite 
> literally a sitting duck."
> 
> http://listserv.fnal.gov/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0908=scientific-linux-users=0=0=4999
> "(About CentOS & why user is switching from CentOS to SL:) So there is a
> potential delay of weeks and months before security updates are passed on 
> whilst a distribution is being rebuilt, as they currently don't start 
> rebuilding the dependencies of an errata updated package, unless it is
> part of the release. I am quite happy to wait a few days for a security 
> updates, but I do take issue to an unknown exposure where security updates
> are delayed for an unspecified length of time."
> 
> Question: that was in 2009. Does anyone know, is the above still true of 
> CentOS? (Apols - I don't wish to join CentOS list just to find that out & 
> am unable to find out via some searching)
> (We are debating building some new servers as SL vs CentOS, & timely
> security updates are relevant to us)
> 
> Many thanks for pointers/enlightenment.

Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[P. Larry Nelson]

Brett Viren wrote on 2/25/20 8:15 AM:

"Peter Willis"  writes:


Perhaps, if it’s not too much trouble, people on the list might give a short 
blurb about
how they use it and why.


Not quite a short blurb, but not too long either.

I am retired now (nearly 4 years) after nearly 50 years in the IT biz - 44 of 
those at UIUC and 20 of those as an IT Admin for our local HEP group, and I can 
tell you that there are two people who made my life immeasurably better.  So I 
just want to toot their horn.


Troy Dawson and Connie Sieh of FermiLab.  Here's a great interview with Troy 
that will answer a lot of questions as well as elucidate why we went with SL.
(I suspect the following will get transmogrified by Fermi's Proof Point URL 
secret encoder ring)


https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__old.montanalinux.org_interview-2Dtroy-2Ddawson-2Dscientific-2Dlinux-2Djune2011.html=DwIDaQ=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=p76IJCxmwsNBSv-yK1gjd90aDixiH0QGmAOt17f6Gf0=_1X0fjomFwROuoTUSK43cCqxlIRTvLj6oFiyBnixFAE= 

Alas, much to my initial dismay, Troy announced in 2011 he was going to work for 
RedHat, but Pat Riehecky jumped in to those big shoes (Thanks Pat!).  I would be 
remiss if I didn't also mention Urs Beyerle and his work on the SL Live 
CDs/DVDs.  And, of course, the (then) smallish but amazingly helpful SL user 
community on this list.


After infuriatingly frustrating and hapless encounters with RHEL support on even 
the simplest of issues, being able to have one-on-one interactions with Troy, 
Connie, and Urs (and other users on the list) was like stepping out of a cold 
dark cave onto a warm sun drenched beach. [not hyperbole]


Our journey (in case you're interested and still reading) went something like:

Late 90's and early 2000's - SunOS (expensive hardware, expensive maintenance 
contracts, expensive licensing). Start playing with this new toy Redhat 2.0. 
(spare desktop hardware, almost free software, no licensing).  Then Redhat 3, 
then 4 - now seeing that we can replicate all services from SunOS to RH.
No longer a toy.  Then RH 5 and 6, 7. 8, 9 and End-of-Life.  LHC was ramping up 
and about to spew petabytes of ATLAS experiment data.  Time to start building 
racks of storage farms and compute clusters.  Switch to RHEL.  But with that 
came confusing and frustrating licensing plus the aforementioned support snafus.


Then an epiphany - one of our engineers was collaborating with another 
institution on loading linux onto embedded processors as part of the Dark Energy 
Survey telescope and came to me for linux advice.  They were using a free linux 
installation from CERN called Scientific Linux (SLC).  "Really!"  He said 
FermiLab had a similar version (SLF) but that they chose SLC for whatever 
reason. He said it's the same as RHEL. "Really!" (again)  I found FermiLab's 
website for SLF and the rest, they say, is history!


We started with RHEL3, moved to SL4, then SL5 (my favorite) and wound up at SL6. 
 SL7 was out and the HEP community was transitioning to it when I retired so I 
didn't have to deal with it.  :-)


Anyways, now back to retirement.
- Larry

--
P. Larry Nelson (217-693-7418) | IT Administrator Emeritus
810 Ventura Rd.| High Energy Physics Group
Champaign, IL  61820   | Physics Dept., Univ. of Ill.
MailTo: lnel...@illinois.edu   | https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__hep.physics.illinois.edu_home_lnelson_=DwIDaQ=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=p76IJCxmwsNBSv-yK1gjd90aDixiH0QGmAOt17f6Gf0=62eHV163Nb89LsMLRPjQOEzjYv_oEs-6HtKt99PM2jA= 
--

 "Information without accountability is just noise."  - P.L. Nelson

Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Brett Viren]

Hi Konstantin,

Konstantin Olchanski  writes:

> This happened right after the first quad-PentiumPro machines became
> available, with Dell dual-PentiumII/III to follow soon after.

Yes and it's why www.phy.bnl.gov is running on a system that still
caries the (internal) hostname "phyppro1"!

> I am not sure what happened with Debian at that point. We certainly knew
> about it, one of Debian founders worked with us. We also knew about Slackware.

I guess this was maybe Perens?  He came to the "Open Source / Open
Science" workshop held at BNL in 1999.

  https://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/1999/bnlpr090899.html

I attended that as a grad student and joined the lab shortly after.

Cheers,
-Brett.


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Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Konstantin Olchanski]

On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 09:15:35AM -0500, Brett Viren wrote:
> 
> You might ask "why is there a HEP monoculture based on Red Hat?".  That
> would be an interesting story if someone knows the details. ...
> 
> I suspect the actions of a small number of early movers led to RH's
> dominance in HEP.  I can point a finger at a few from FNAL and BNL.
>

That's right. I was at BNL at the time, it was right in front of my eyes.

The first guy installed RH linux. it worked. end of story.

This happened right after the first quad-PentiumPro machines became
available, with Dell dual-PentiumII/III to follow soon after.

These USD$2k desktop boxes had performance better than USD$250k SGI 
"mainframes",
they had 100Mbit ethernet (SGI did not), they plugged into 110V wall power (SGI
required 3 phase AC). so. end of SGI. SGI IRIX out, Linux in.

>
> Debian and RH started at the same time (1993) so my guess is these early
> movers just happened to be more exposed to RH and less to Debian.  The
> network effect then did its thing.
> 

I am not sure what happened with Debian at that point. We certainly knew
about it, one of Debian founders worked with us. We also knew about Slackware.

It is hard to remember that far back, but I would say that Red Hat was probably
the better distribution at the time, having a business funded with startup
money behind it. Small things like the sadly missed tools "redhat-config-users",
"redhat-config-network", interactive installers, etc must have all added up 
somehow.

>
> The second, maybe coupled, dynamic is that (I suspect) there was a
> seduction by the corporate backing of RH of HEP lab management.  Or,
> maybe a "comfort" is a less loaded term.
>

At BNL, "management" only got involved in this by the time RHIC and LHC
experiments started looking at their computing needs. By that time
everybody already was running Red Hat Linux.

>
> I think it natural that management types would cozy up to arguments
> like: "RH is corporate, just like Sun, but cheaper" compared to Debian's
> scary form of *gasp* self-organization.
> 

I think that's right. Certainly Red Hat sales and corporate people had
a presence (and Debian, lacking both, did not). Incoming hardware from IBM & co
all had "OS: Red Hat Linux" written in the specs (not "Debian"), etc.

>
> Of course, and maybe only in hindsight, we know Debian's organization is
> more robust an entity than RH's ended up being.  Ironically, Debian also
> contains far far more science-related packages than the distribution
> with "science" in its name.  
> 

Yes, intersting how that turned out.

-- 
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada

Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Jon Pruente]

>
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com_-3Furl-3Dhttps-253A-252F-252Furldefense.proofpoint.com-252Fv2-252Furl-253Fu-253Dhttp-2D3A-5F-5Fwww.cs.concordia.ca-5F-2D7Emokhov-2526d-253DDwIFaQ-2526c-253DgRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA-2526r-253Dgd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-2DP-2DpgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A-2526m-253DReXrKueW8ZKy6ZeDrhbuU0jFxocBkwAtzvgZ8Lw2ARo-2526s-253Dbe7he2wCrlv4hIwX-5Fh0scVYIki4Qb7seECAg7OOc-2DMY-2526e-26amp-3Bdata-3D02-257C01-257Crdt12-2540PSU.EDU-257C9fb96135f1114e1bf6b108d7b938cfd4-257C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e-257C0-257C0-257C637181525973769014-26amp-3Bsdata-3DefZ-252FN-252FksB4JxCeCgsEBmSkFNIfgbSPGAiP70rfaAVes-253D-26amp-3Breserved-3D0-3D=DwIF-g=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=8TdfyJ1u8MnWKcS6ydkH1brzzoEzq1IZRhMef5YNV1I=hPRLpwZu7HwRGmm7_TBUfJv0w0CSwjuGooVPdc6YHzI=
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com_-3Furl-3Dhttps-253A-252F-252Furldefense.proofpoint.com-252Fv2-252Furl-253Fu-253Dhttp-2D3A-5F-5Fcciff.ca-2526d-253DDwIFaQ-2526c-253DgRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA-2526r-253Dgd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-2DP-2DpgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A-2526m-253DReXrKueW8ZKy6ZeDrhbuU0jFxocBkwAtzvgZ8Lw2ARo-2526s-253Dr1CyWyPBkhOKlYHXLLBrBRzhyvOXZfdHagfuQ1DQWDk-2526e-26amp-3Bdata-3D02-257C01-257Crdt12-2540PSU.EDU-257C9fb96135f1114e1bf6b108d7b938cfd4-257C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e-257C0-257C0-257C637181525973769014-26amp-3Bsdata-3DvOC8W1XdAWbpKhU0ZWNK02OGyw1V4hUoT5gbdi0MMYM-253D-26amp-3Breserved-3D0-3D=DwIF-g=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=8TdfyJ1u8MnWKcS6ydkH1brzzoEzq1IZRhMef5YNV1I=AjMm_VAXOf28cikomJtmfuTunn_KhxlwZvjcCllMptM=
>  |
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com_-3Furl-3Dhttps-253A-252F-252Furldefense.proofpoint.com-252Fv2-252Furl-253Fu-253Dhttp-2D3A-5F-5Fmdreams-2D2Dstage.com-2526d-253DDwIFaQ-2526c-253DgRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA-2526r-253Dgd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-2DP-2DpgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A-2526m-253DReXrKueW8ZKy6ZeDrhbuU0jFxocBkwAtzvgZ8Lw2ARo-2526s-253DGqE1OMX9RmXnxHlwLxQhCFqwgZdIh5nqA-2DPoNF1J30c-2526e-26amp-3Bdata-3D02-257C01-257Crdt12-2540PSU.EDU-257C9fb96135f1114e1bf6b108d7b938cfd4-257C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e-257C0-257C0-257C637181525973769014-26amp-3Bsdata-3Df7eYknsB-252Bt8OjVK3xMccqjRNCHHl4IXLwdLiS1e9vHM-253D-26amp-3Breserved-3D0-3D=DwIF-g=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=8TdfyJ1u8MnWKcS6ydkH1brzzoEzq1IZRhMef5YNV1I=94QdigvDN02IKw-od5I0IuFZZBYYFEI9pNQ5u8zTrrk=
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com_-3Furl-3Dhttps-253A-252F-252Furldefense.proofpoint.com-252Fv2-252Furl-253Fu-253Dhttp-2D3A-5F-5Fmarf.sf.net-2526d-253DDwIFaQ-2526c-253DgRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA-2526r-253Dgd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-2DP-2DpgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A-2526m-253DReXrKueW8ZKy6ZeDrhbuU0jFxocBkwAtzvgZ8Lw2ARo-2526s-253DAChVu3ppzcRMQhwedztVKVDCZpdn7eviggK3B8gom7Y-2526e-26amp-3Bdata-3D02-257C01-257Crdt12-2540PSU.EDU-257C9fb96135f1114e1bf6b108d7b938cfd4-257C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e-257C0-257C0-257C637181525973769014-26amp-3Bsdata-3DUjmIivP7v0xFqNejXm3OxtfLoslgQEQ7WBC561PcMxk-253D-26amp-3Breserved-3D0-3D=DwIF-g=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=8TdfyJ1u8MnWKcS6ydkH1brzzoEzq1IZRhMef5YNV1I=sZHCCLPdmrR44aL3uGjrjP-OFI4A3K3ueeogGyC62cs=
>  |
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com_-3Furl-3Dhttps-253A-252F-252Furldefense.proofpoint.com-252Fv2-252Furl-253Fu-253Dhttp-2D3A-5F-5Fsf.net-5Fprojects-5Fmarf-2526d-253DDwIFaQ-2526c-253DgRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA-2526r-253Dgd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-2DP-2DpgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A-2526m-253DReXrKueW8ZKy6ZeDrhbuU0jFxocBkwAtzvgZ8Lw2ARo-2526s-253DlBCv7stSS6iCundVO4eoQ9BsgR8UV294lSmdDozJ8Q8-2526e-26amp-3Bdata-3D02-257C01-257Crdt12-2540PSU.EDU-257C9fb96135f1114e1bf6b108d7b938cfd4-257C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e-257C0-257C0-257C637181525973779008-26amp-3Bsdata-3Dr6As6zcECCxvWBJiNTBWBhB3jN-252FQ49cHPCI4u3O9R-252B8-253D-26amp-3Breserved-3D0-3D=DwIF-g=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=8TdfyJ1u8MnWKcS6ydkH1brzzoEzq1IZRhMef5YNV1I=fApZLkTeoBIxng-TxbjbW3zWef2iI1k3bMi-afkiJG0=
>

I'm curious how many levels deep the Proof Point URL Defense will
recontinue to re-encode its own encoded URLs. I thought t was silly when
that was added to the list infra, and this makes it even more so. URLs in
messages quoted backt to the list is hardly an edge case.

Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Brett Viren]

"Peter Willis"  writes:

> Perhaps, if it’s not too much trouble, people on the list might give a short 
> blurb about
> how they use it and why.

SL (and soon changing to Centos) provides a monoculture in HEP computing
so there is no choice for me but to consider it.

I use Debian-based distributions where I have a choice.

To satisfy both of my constraints, I restrict my personal use of SL to
environments provided by Linux containers.  This way, I can assure my
software works for the monoculture while allowing me to stay in my
preferred environment for the majority of my activities.


Warning: wool gathering:

You might ask "why is there a HEP monoculture based on Red Hat?".  That
would be an interesting story if someone knows the details.  My guess is
that it is due to one or two (or both) dynamics:

I suspect the actions of a small number of early movers led to RH's
dominance in HEP.  I can point a finger at a few from FNAL and BNL.
Debian and RH started at the same time (1993) so my guess is these early
movers just happened to be more exposed to RH and less to Debian.  The
network effect then did its thing.

The second, maybe coupled, dynamic is that (I suspect) there was a
seduction by the corporate backing of RH of HEP lab management.  Or,
maybe a "comfort" is a less loaded term.  Sure, the BSDs were a
pre-existing counter narrative, but what I saw dominating in mid 90s HEP
was SGI's Irix, DEC's Pure64, Sun's SunOS/Solaris.  In that environment,
I think it natural that management types would cozy up to arguments
like: "RH is corporate, just like Sun, but cheaper" compared to Debian's
scary form of *gasp* self-organization.

Of course, and maybe only in hindsight, we know Debian's organization is
more robust an entity than RH's ended up being.  Ironically, Debian also
contains far far more science-related packages than the distribution
with "science" in its name.  


Anyways, now back to work.

-Brett.


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Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Winnie Lacesso]

Bonjour,

This was posted to SLU in 2012 but didn't get any actual answers. It's
reposted in case anyone can firmly say (or no) that the situation has
changed or is the same. *Is* it true that CentOS still have a period when
they do *not* release security updates for earlier OS dot releases, thus
leaving those earlier dot releases vulnerable?

(Security is one reason we stuck with SL with Super-Gratitude to them!)


My security colleagues said:

My reading of the thread surrounding that quote is that CentOS *do* 
release security patches between "dot" releases, but that they stop in the 
period between Red Hat releasing an update and the time that they have 
pushed that update out themselves. Thus, 5.3 has been released by both Red 
Hat and CentOS and is receiving updates, but when 5.4 comes out from Red 
Hat, all their security updates will not necessarily work on 5.3 so CentOS 
stops releasing them. As soon as CentOS gets 5.4 out of the door, the 
updates will start again (and they will have rolled the missing ones into 
their 5.4 release). 

It is significant though (i.e. potentially a couple of months without
security fixes when a new CentOS point release is being prepared), and
something I wasn't aware of. At the very least, CentOS admins need to be
aware of this until and unless the policy changes.


Original post: PS I haven't verified the links are still valid! (sorry)

In 2009 I was surprised to learn from this useful+informative SL-User's 
list, that CentOS does not always release security updates in a timely 
manner: 

http://listserv.fnal.gov/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0908=scientific-linux-users=0=0=4484
"It has come to light that the maintainers don't/can't release interim  
security updates while they are rebuilding a new dot release from 
upstream" 

http://listserv.fnal.gov/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0908=SCIENTIFIC-LINUX-USERS=R7106=-3
"For example, once Redhat releases a point release, an attacker knows that
any subsequent errata can be used against a CentOS box at least until the 
CentOS project releases the corresponding point release. It is quite 
literally a sitting duck."

http://listserv.fnal.gov/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0908=scientific-linux-users=0=0=4999
"(About CentOS & why user is switching from CentOS to SL:) So there is a
potential delay of weeks and months before security updates are passed on 
whilst a distribution is being rebuilt, as they currently don't start 
rebuilding the dependencies of an errata updated package, unless it is
part of the release. I am quite happy to wait a few days for a security 
updates, but I do take issue to an unknown exposure where security updates
are delayed for an unspecified length of time."

Question: that was in 2009. Does anyone know, is the above still true of 
CentOS? (Apols - I don't wish to join CentOS list just to find that out & 
am unable to find out via some searching)
(We are debating building some new servers as SL vs CentOS, & timely
security updates are relevant to us)

Many thanks for pointers/enlightenment.

Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[~Stack~]

On 2/24/20 8:09 AM, Peter Willis wrote:
> Hello,

Greetings!

> The variation in uses of t Scientific Linux is quite interesting.
> 
> As mentioned before, we are using it for fluid dynamics modelling and
> oceanography, in the context of parallel computing with OpenMP and MPICH.
> 
> I am curious to see what everyone else have been using it for.
> 
> Perhaps, if it’s not too much trouble, people on the list might give a
> short blurb about how they use it and why.

I had been using CentOS 5.x (and 4.X before that) for the base image in
a large High Performance Cluster (many hundreds of nodes) with Red Hat
as the infrastructure and important nodes but couldn't afford to pay for
that many nodes, especially since they were so minimalist. It was a
government institution that did everything from weather forecasts to
military parts modeling.

Red Hat released RHEL6 in November of 2010. I had a /really/ strong need
to move packages to EL6 for a new workload but again couldn't afford the
price tag (I can't remember how many nodes we had at that time...I think
over 300...we grew even more over the years). SL6 released 4-ish months
later in March 2011. I had been pestered to move to it but I wanted to
stick with CentOS because I knew it and was a little bit involved in the
community at the time. But there were a lot of issues and they were
re-tooling their build scripts. Finally in May, I gave in and made the
switch with the plan to revert back to CentOS6 when it released.

During the installations, I realized I goofed and my scripts that
figured out if it was on a RH host or a CentOS host were "failing" the
check and defaulting to RH...except they weren't failing...I thought it
was a fluke or something else was really broken so I dug into it. That's
when I realized that SL was actually closer to RH then CentOS was!

A lot of my "proofs" for this claim require quite a bit of setup or
configuration, but the easiest one that anyone can test is simply "yum
update --security". SL publishes a security channel, CentOS doesn't!
Which something even that simple means less work as I no longer needed
to scrape and parse out a massive list of CVE's to determine which
packages I needed to install (at the time I had to apply security
patches daily but I didn't like patching/updating packages just because
it was an update...if something broke I wanted as few things to check
for as I could. I'm at a different job now and still have the same
restriction though). Soon I ditched a TON of custom scripts for CentOS
because it all just worked great on SL the same as it did the RH hosts!
Bonus, RH6/SL6 was a lot more stable for us and let us do a few things
even better so I expanded the cluster a few hundred more nodes by the
end of 2011.

By the time CentOS 6 released in July 2011, I had zero desire to go back.

Today, I'm still the admin of big High Performance Clusters for a well
known economic modeling and research institution. Things that management
really cares about that they want to be able to pickup the phone and
yell at someone or get warm fuzzys about support contracts (eg: Ceph),
those are still RH. All the servers I care about being close to RH but
can't justify in the budget for (aka management won't pay for) RH are SL
6/7. At home, I run SL7 for all my servers (Lubuntu for my
desktop/laptops because I really like LXQT). I've even done the CERN
charity donations before where I send thank you notes to the SL devs in
the notes fields (no idea if they got them or not). :-D

We are just now exploring RH8/CentOS8. I've got a single RH8 VM I'm
doing testing in and I'm building a CentOS 8 later this week. There's
little reason for us to move to 8 at this moment...the bigger push is
that we still have a MASSIVE system (~100 nodes and quite important)
that is SL6 based and we need to get off of it by end of summer (both
hardware support ending and EL6 being EOL in November). So I'm trying to
figure out if I am going to take the easy path to SL7 that I know I can
do or if I jump it to 8... *shrug*

So that's more than just a short blurb...guess I will shut up now. :-D

~Stack~



signature.asc
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Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Arthur H. Edwards]

Hi:

I use SL because it is currently the only Distro allowed on one of our 
networks. I prefer ubuntu because of the package management system, and because 
of the large number opackages available. I use SL (both 6 and 7) for DFT 
calculations. 

Art Edwards

-- 
 Arthur H. Edwards
 edwards...@fastmail.fm



On Mon, Feb 24, 2020, at 7:45 AM, teastl...@carolina.rr.com wrote:
> Hello,

> I chose to install SL because it was forked from Red Hat and thus compatible 
> with the Intel Quartus FPGA IDE. I also liked that it came from a purely 
> scientific community.

> Regards,
> Tom Eastlake
> Cleveland, OH, USA
> 
> -

> From: "Peter Willis" 
> To: scientific-linux-us...@listserv.fnal.gov
> Cc: 
> Sent: Monday February 24 2020 9:09:27AM
> Subject: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?
> 
> Hello,

> 

> The variation in uses of t Scientific Linux is quite interesting.

> As mentioned before, we are using it for fluid dynamics modelling and 
> oceanography, in the context of parallel computing with OpenMP and MPICH.

> 

> I am curious to see what everyone else have been using it for.

> 

> Perhaps, if it’s not too much trouble, people on the list might give a short 
> blurb about how they use it and why.

> Maybe also mention others they know who are using it who are not on this list.

> 

> Peter

> 

> 

> 

> >I'm no scientist, just an electronics guy who do a lot of research in RF (as 
> >hobby, mostly testing antennas for ham radio in VHF bands) from Argentina.

> > 

> >Fot SL the most "well done" linux distribution, for people who simply knows.

> > 

> >Will look forward to move to another distribution.

> > 

> > 

>> >>I'm an independent electronics inventor, heavily dependent
>> >>on both competent software and competent laboratory science,
>> >>both for the knowledge I depend on and the tools I use to
>> >>transform that knowledge into products and services for
>> >>my customers. 
>> >>

Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Larry Linder]

We have used it since SL 4.1
As a small engineering manufacturing company we rely on its stability.
As an old Unix guy it was easy.
We have added a lot of packages to it for various Engineering projects
and with Maria DB is runs our manufacturing operation.
We have a few thousand scripts to do odd jobs at night.
We use it as a server for our few Widows machines that cannot be trusted
with critical stuff.
Our file system is huge for a company as we have been shoveling project
files and part libraries into it for 20 years.

We have tried Cent 8 and it is a miserable example of cute but
disfunctional desk top.  It could not be connected to any of our other
machines and the number of mouse clicks to do anything is horrible.

Fedora was a mistake.  Driven by people with no commercial experience.

When the Boss is breathing down your neck and asking why the invoices
didn't go out on time or worse yet is paychecks that are late Friday
Noon and the guys in the shop are not very understanding.

What we have been looking at is PC Linux because it still uses the
traditional Unix boot scheme.  To reorganize something that worded well
with a supervisery bunch of code is nonsense.  So it allows a server to
boot a bit faster.  We reboot our server once every 6 mo.  It's down
just enough to allow a cleaning and checking of fans / filters.  So why
bother.  

So my attitude is bqd but I can rest easy and not worry about a call in
the middle of the night saying the server is down and we need it Monday
@ 7 AM.

Larry Linder



 

On Mon, 2020-02-24 at 15:32 +, Tapia, Ron wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Speaking as an individual, I have two primary motivations for using SL. The 
> first is that I feel that if I were to report a bug or contribute a fix or 
> answer a question on this mailing list, I would be contributing in some small 
> way to the HEP/SL community. The second is that I feel that the focus and 
> interests of the SL maintainers might be aligned mine. For example, I imagine 
> that a LaTeX problem might be a minor crisis for SL maintainers, but a blip 
> for Red Hat/CentOS. I suppose the decision not to continue SL has been made, 
> but it's a pity. I wonder if it was considered not just as a technical 
> project, but a form of outreach.
> 
> Around research computing and central IT here at Penn State, both RHEL7 and 
> SL7 are supported and in use. RHEL7 is used where a support contract is a 
> must.
> 
> I'm not sure what I'll do after SL7, but I'm certain that I will look into 
> Debian as an option as well as Centos8.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Ron
> 
> 
> From: owner-scientific-linux-us...@listserv.fnal.gov 
>  on behalf of Serguei Mokhov 
> 
> Sent: Monday, February 24, 2020 9:49 AM
> To: Peter Willis
> Cc: scientific-linux-us...@listserv.fnal.gov
> Subject: Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?
> 
> In the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science, at
> Concordia University, Montreal, we've been using SL since around SL5
> for our 100+ servers, 1000+ lab desktops (dual boot), and recent HPC
> facility Speed (concordia.ca/ginacody/aits/speed) loaded with all kind
> of engineering and parallel processing packages and stuff for
> deeplearning, etc. -- the packages are compiled on an NFS-mounted
> software partition at all locations.
> 
> Why? Primarily because SL was championed by Fermilab and CERN and
> provided support for minor version releases unlike CentOS. And we've
> been a RH shop in the past for all of our infrastructure for a long
> time. SL was the best stable option compared to the alternatives back
> then and CentOS faced uncertainty. We tried Fedora in the past for the
> desktops, but maintaining that many lab desktops every semester from
> bleeding edge updates breaking stuff too often, forced us to move
> desktops off Fedora to SL as well.
> 
> Still using it all today, but for EL8 we will be something of an
> adventure I guess at some point in the future.
> 
> -s
> 
> On Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 9:09 AM Peter Willis  wrote:
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> >
> >
> > The variation in uses of t Scientific Linux is quite interesting.
> >
> > As mentioned before, we are using it for fluid dynamics modelling and 
> > oceanography, in the context of parallel computing with OpenMP and MPICH.
> >
> >
> >
> > I am curious to see what everyone else have been using it for.
> >
> >
> >
> > Perhaps, if it’s not too much trouble, people on the list might give a 
> > short blurb about how they use it and why.
> >
> > Maybe also mention others they know who are using it who are not on this 
> > list.
> >
> >
> >
> > Peter
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
&g

Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Tapia, Ron]

 Hi,

Speaking as an individual, I have two primary motivations for using SL. The 
first is that I feel that if I were to report a bug or contribute a fix or 
answer a question on this mailing list, I would be contributing in some small 
way to the HEP/SL community. The second is that I feel that the focus and 
interests of the SL maintainers might be aligned mine. For example, I imagine 
that a LaTeX problem might be a minor crisis for SL maintainers, but a blip for 
Red Hat/CentOS. I suppose the decision not to continue SL has been made, but 
it's a pity. I wonder if it was considered not just as a technical project, but 
a form of outreach.

Around research computing and central IT here at Penn State, both RHEL7 and SL7 
are supported and in use. RHEL7 is used where a support contract is a must.

I'm not sure what I'll do after SL7, but I'm certain that I will look into 
Debian as an option as well as Centos8.

Cheers,

Ron


From: owner-scientific-linux-us...@listserv.fnal.gov 
 on behalf of Serguei Mokhov 

Sent: Monday, February 24, 2020 9:49 AM
To: Peter Willis
Cc: scientific-linux-us...@listserv.fnal.gov
Subject: Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

In the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science, at
Concordia University, Montreal, we've been using SL since around SL5
for our 100+ servers, 1000+ lab desktops (dual boot), and recent HPC
facility Speed (concordia.ca/ginacody/aits/speed) loaded with all kind
of engineering and parallel processing packages and stuff for
deeplearning, etc. -- the packages are compiled on an NFS-mounted
software partition at all locations.

Why? Primarily because SL was championed by Fermilab and CERN and
provided support for minor version releases unlike CentOS. And we've
been a RH shop in the past for all of our infrastructure for a long
time. SL was the best stable option compared to the alternatives back
then and CentOS faced uncertainty. We tried Fedora in the past for the
desktops, but maintaining that many lab desktops every semester from
bleeding edge updates breaking stuff too often, forced us to move
desktops off Fedora to SL as well.

Still using it all today, but for EL8 we will be something of an
adventure I guess at some point in the future.

-s

On Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 9:09 AM Peter Willis  wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
>
>
> The variation in uses of t Scientific Linux is quite interesting.
>
> As mentioned before, we are using it for fluid dynamics modelling and 
> oceanography, in the context of parallel computing with OpenMP and MPICH.
>
>
>
> I am curious to see what everyone else have been using it for.
>
>
>
> Perhaps, if it’s not too much trouble, people on the list might give a short 
> blurb about how they use it and why.
>
> Maybe also mention others they know who are using it who are not on this list.
>
>
>
> Peter
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >I'm no scientist, just an electronics guy who do a lot of research in RF (as 
> >hobby, mostly testing antennas for ham radio in VHF bands) from Argentina.
>
> >
>
> >Fot SL the most "well done" linux distribution, for people who simply knows.
>
> >
>
> >Will look forward to move to another distribution.
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >>I'm an independent electronics inventor, heavily dependent
> >>on both competent software and competent laboratory science,
> >>both for the knowledge I depend on and the tools I use to
> >>transform that knowledge into products and services for
> >>my customers.
> >>



--
Serguei Mokhov
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com_-3Furl-3Dhttps-253A-252F-252Furldefense.proofpoint.com-252Fv2-252Furl-253Fu-253Dhttp-2D3A-5F-5Fwww.cs.concordia.ca-5F-2D7Emokhov-2526d-253DDwIFaQ-2526c-253DgRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA-2526r-253Dgd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-2DP-2DpgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A-2526m-253DReXrKueW8ZKy6ZeDrhbuU0jFxocBkwAtzvgZ8Lw2ARo-2526s-253Dbe7he2wCrlv4hIwX-5Fh0scVYIki4Qb7seECAg7OOc-2DMY-2526e-26amp-3Bdata-3D02-257C01-257Crdt12-2540PSU.EDU-257C9fb96135f1114e1bf6b108d7b938cfd4-257C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e-257C0-257C0-257C637181525973769014-26amp-3Bsdata-3DefZ-252FN-252FksB4JxCeCgsEBmSkFNIfgbSPGAiP70rfaAVes-253D-26amp-3Breserved-3D0-3D=DwIF-g=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=8TdfyJ1u8MnWKcS6ydkH1brzzoEzq1IZRhMef5YNV1I=hPRLpwZu7HwRGmm7_TBUfJv0w0CSwjuGooVPdc6YHzI=
 
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Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[ONeal, Miles]

At my previous job, we used it for microprocessor development, along with 
commercial tools and the Torque/Moab batch queuing system. The software tools 
team used it as well.
I used it on al our home computers for several years but eventually switched to 
Fedora to be able to use more recent desktop software.

-Miles

On Feb 24, 2020, at 08:09, Peter Willis  wrote:


Caution: EXTERNAL email



Hello,

The variation in uses of t Scientific Linux is quite interesting.
As mentioned before, we are using it for fluid dynamics modelling and 
oceanography, in the context of parallel computing with OpenMP and MPICH.

I am curious to see what everyone else have been using it for.

Perhaps, if it’s not too much trouble, people on the list might give a short 
blurb about how they use it and why.
Maybe also mention others they know who are using it who are not on this list.

Peter



>I'm no scientist, just an electronics guy who do a lot of research in RF (as 
>hobby, mostly testing antennas for ham radio in VHF bands) from Argentina.
>
>Fot SL the most "well done" linux distribution, for people who simply knows.
>
>Will look forward to move to another distribution.
>
>
>>I'm an independent electronics inventor, heavily dependent
>>on both competent software and competent laboratory science,
>>both for the knowledge I depend on and the tools I use to
>>transform that knowledge into products and services for
>>my customers.
>>

Re: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Serguei Mokhov]

In the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science, at
Concordia University, Montreal, we've been using SL since around SL5
for our 100+ servers, 1000+ lab desktops (dual boot), and recent HPC
facility Speed (concordia.ca/ginacody/aits/speed) loaded with all kind
of engineering and parallel processing packages and stuff for
deeplearning, etc. -- the packages are compiled on an NFS-mounted
software partition at all locations.

Why? Primarily because SL was championed by Fermilab and CERN and
provided support for minor version releases unlike CentOS. And we've
been a RH shop in the past for all of our infrastructure for a long
time. SL was the best stable option compared to the alternatives back
then and CentOS faced uncertainty. We tried Fedora in the past for the
desktops, but maintaining that many lab desktops every semester from
bleeding edge updates breaking stuff too often, forced us to move
desktops off Fedora to SL as well.

Still using it all today, but for EL8 we will be something of an
adventure I guess at some point in the future.

-s

On Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 9:09 AM Peter Willis  wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
>
>
> The variation in uses of t Scientific Linux is quite interesting.
>
> As mentioned before, we are using it for fluid dynamics modelling and 
> oceanography, in the context of parallel computing with OpenMP and MPICH.
>
>
>
> I am curious to see what everyone else have been using it for.
>
>
>
> Perhaps, if it’s not too much trouble, people on the list might give a short 
> blurb about how they use it and why.
>
> Maybe also mention others they know who are using it who are not on this list.
>
>
>
> Peter
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >I'm no scientist, just an electronics guy who do a lot of research in RF (as 
> >hobby, mostly testing antennas for ham radio in VHF bands) from Argentina.
>
> >
>
> >Fot SL the most "well done" linux distribution, for people who simply knows.
>
> >
>
> >Will look forward to move to another distribution.
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >>I'm an independent electronics inventor, heavily dependent
> >>on both competent software and competent laboratory science,
> >>both for the knowledge I depend on and the tools I use to
> >>transform that knowledge into products and services for
> >>my customers.
> >>



-- 
Serguei Mokhov
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cs.concordia.ca_-7Emokhov=DwIFaQ=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=ReXrKueW8ZKy6ZeDrhbuU0jFxocBkwAtzvgZ8Lw2ARo=be7he2wCrlv4hIwX_h0scVYIki4Qb7seECAg7OOc-MY=
 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__cciff.ca=DwIFaQ=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=ReXrKueW8ZKy6ZeDrhbuU0jFxocBkwAtzvgZ8Lw2ARo=r1CyWyPBkhOKlYHXLLBrBRzhyvOXZfdHagfuQ1DQWDk=
  | 
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https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__marf.sf.net=DwIFaQ=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=ReXrKueW8ZKy6ZeDrhbuU0jFxocBkwAtzvgZ8Lw2ARo=AChVu3ppzcRMQhwedztVKVDCZpdn7eviggK3B8gom7Y=
  | 
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RE: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[TEASTLAKE]

Hello,

I chose to install SL because it was forked from Red Hat and thus
compatible with the Intel Quartus FPGA IDE. I also liked that it came
from a purely scientific community.Regards,
Tom Eastlake
Cleveland, OH, USA

-From: "Peter Willis" 

To: scientific-linux-us...@listserv.fnal.gov
Cc: 
Sent: Monday February 24 2020 9:09:27AM
Subject: Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

* 

Hello,

The variation in uses of t Scientific Linux is quite interesting.

As mentioned before, we are using it for fluid dynamics modelling and
oceanography, in the context of parallel computing with OpenMP and
MPICH.

I am curious to see what everyone else have been using it for.

Perhaps, if it’s not too much trouble, people on the list might
give a short blurb about how they use it and why.

Maybe also mention others they know who are using it who are not on
this list.

Peter

>I'm no scientist, just an electronics guy who do a lot of research
in RF (as hobby, mostly testing antennas for ham radio in VHF bands)
from Argentina.

> 

>Fot SL the most "well done" linux distribution, for people who
simply knows.

> 

>Will look forward to move to another distribution.

> 

> 

>>I'm an independent electronics inventor, heavily dependent
>>on both competent software and competent laboratory science,
>>both for the knowledge I depend on and the tools I use to
>>transform that knowledge into products and services for
>>my customers. 
>>

Who Uses Scientific Linux, and How/Why?

[Peter Willis]

Hello,
 
The variation in uses of t Scientific Linux is quite interesting.
As mentioned before, we are using it for fluid dynamics modelling and 
oceanography, in the context of parallel computing with OpenMP and MPICH.
 
I am curious to see what everyone else have been using it for.
 
Perhaps, if it’s not too much trouble, people on the list might give a short 
blurb about how they use it and why.
Maybe also mention others they know who are using it who are not on this list.
 
Peter
 
 
 
>I'm no scientist, just an electronics guy who do a lot of research in RF (as 
>hobby, mostly testing antennas for ham radio in VHF bands) from Argentina.
> 
>Fot SL the most "well done" linux distribution, for people who simply knows.
> 
>Will look forward to move to another distribution.
> 
> 
>>I'm an independent electronics inventor, heavily dependent
>>on both competent software and competent laboratory science,
>>both for the knowledge I depend on and the tools I use to
>>transform that knowledge into products and services for
>>my customers.  
>>