[Bioclusters] Any issues porting applications to OS X?

[Elia Stupka]

>> I have never had problems getting software I need to run on OS X, but 
>> I wondered if anyone can provide me with examples of applications 
>> that won't run on OS X, or are Linux only (only binaries released & 
>> no source available).
>
> I suspect you'll get much more bang-per-buck with Xeon machines.  
> You'll also probably get better management features, although how 
> crucial that is rather depends on how large a cluster you want to get.

Having worked with an alpha cluster, linux cluster and Xserve cluster I 
definitely share Tim's opinion on having more management headaches on 
OS X (though *once you have figured out* as we do now it's relatively 
painless), but in terms  of bang per buck it is true that Apple are 
really trying hard to place some large clusters around the world, so 
you could get more than you'd initially imagine from list prices. Quite 
frankly in the end we went for Xserve precisely because they got us 
more bang per buck in Singapore, and were about to win that contest in 
Italy too, hadn't Dell offered some really cheap plastic with really no 
frills attached. I would also Apple, despite not having the huge 
experience some of the big guys have in the server arena, have tried 
incredibly hard to keep us happy service-wise, always giving us direct 
contact to smart guys in their headquarters all the really nasty bugs 
we would uncover in OS X 10.2

Elia

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