Linux and bioinformatics questions....

[Tim Cutts]

In article <7nt8db$ggv$1 at franklin.ljcrf.edu>,
Dr. Greg Quinn <greg at franklin.burnham-inst.org> wrote:
>Hi;
>
>I will shortly be buying a high end multiprocessor pentium box to 
>perform database searches; I am by no means convinced that Linux is 
>the best operating system for high load activity, and have heard
>better things about FreeBSD than I have about linux in real-life 
>high-use situations. As far as I can see though, Linux rules 
>in the sense that there are far more supported packages in a molecular
>biology context. 
>
>Can somone convince me that Linux must be the way to go for a UNIX 
>PC box? Thanks for any advice.

Although it is improving all the time, SMP performance on Linux is not
wonderful.  The latest 2.3 development kernels are supposed to address
the issue, but I don't know how stable they are.

I can't speak for FreeBSD.

I have heard people say that Solaris is still the one to go for for
SMP machines; for academics it is not too expensive.

Tim.