HPC and Windows

They do not mix. Windows licensing makes for large clusters to be very costly. And HPC software for Windows opens non free opportunities too.

So indeed, what the hell WERE they thinking?

I heard a MS speaker...

at the Open Fabrics conference a few years back. They were talking about clustering on a scale that might have been impressive 10 years ago, but it definitely wasn't much today. Yes, they did want to license by the core. No, nobody really cared what they had to say.

If you were Dell, and Microsoft said ...

If you were Dell, and Microsoft said "sell this Cray box with Windows, or we may have to have that talk down the golf course we mentioned when you last looked at non-Windows stuff", what would you do? Your company's survival depends on visible and invisible kickbacks from its two most expensive component suppliers, Intel and Microsoft. Therefore, as is normal in these circumstances, when the monopoly supplier says "jump", the customer says "of course. how high would suit you today?".

Dell sales limitations, not just support

I mean, let's face it, who would trust your average Dell salesteam to even SELL a clustered Linux solution, many of which have to be very tailored for their app and environment? At least MS gives their sales team an easy to pitch, limited options list that they would be hard pressed to screw up - and would take limited time to learn.

Ultimately, that may be what gives MS a foothold and perhaps even a victory in HPC - it's a much easier solution to train your sales team for and to sell. There are simply too many competing Linux options for cluster provisioning, management, montoring, etc. It takes VERY specialized resources to get it done right. Setting up an MS HPC cluster probably looks no harder than to install other MS enterprise services - and the manuals re-assuringly say "Microsoft" on them, not "O'Reilly".

Or maybe...

... Dell flog the boxes with Windows on knowing that their customers will ditch the OS for Linux.

That way, they don't actually have to support the software after the sale.

If they flogged Linux ones, then you would have to support the OS.

Dell had no choice

Dell: We gonna sell supercomputers. Yay!

MS: They must have Windows installed.

Dell: What? No one wants Windows on a supercomputer.

MS: Doesn't matter, check your contract. 99.99% of all your sales MUST be Windows and any non-Windows sales MUST be on crippled hardware.

Dell: We won't comply.

MS: Then we'll raise the unit price of Windows to an unsustainable level. You must ensure that our dominance continues. You have no choice. Obey.

Dell: ...

"manuals re-assuringly say "Microsoft" on them, not "O'Reilly""

O'really?

You don't happen to think that in one of the last bastions of decision-making for engineers and scientists by scientists and engineers, rather than by clueless Powerpoint-driven PHBs [1], the people making the buying decisions may actually have a clue about what they're buying, unlike in most of the MS-centric IT world where the PHBs and the Powerpoint jockeys have taken over full control of the operation's budgets (but taken no responsibility for its failures)?

[1] Where's Lewis when you need him: "a PowerPoint culture ... that glosses over hard questions and detailed evidence, and sacrifices safety to incompetence, sloppiness, complacency and cynicism. The catastrophe was caused as much by organisational culture as the faulty fuel seal." That's the Grauniad, paraphrasing the Nimrod enquiry which said: "PowerPoint was used to ‘demonstrate’ engineering rather than explain a proper technical analysis. When engineering analysis and risk assessments are condensed to fit on a standard form or overhead slide, information is inevitably lost. ... PowerPoint can ... be dangerous, mesmerising, and lead to sloppy (or nil) thinking.".

@Henry Wertz 1

"Windows traditional strengths such as video and 3D driver support"

Excuse me, I laughed so hard I need to wipe up the tears of mirth that fell onto the PowerMac workstation and flowed towards the Linux servers.

Thanks, I needed the laugh.