Linux Operating Family at the Top

Every six months a new list of the top 500 supercomputers is published. This shows not only where they are geographically but also the operating systems used, the application of each one and certain other factors.

10 years ago the statistics were very different to today.  Back in November 2000, the Unix operating system was most used at over 85% (427) of the top 500  supercomputers. The number of Linux operating systems only stood at 10.8%. (54)

By November 2005, the most favoured operating system was Linux which had jumped up to 74.4%, (372) Unix had dropped to 19.4% (97)  and Windows just appearing at 0.2%(1)

In the latest report published this month (June) the figures have again changed in support of Linux. Out of 500 supercomputers Linux is behind 455,  equal to 91%. Unix stands at 4.4% (22) and Windows at 1%(5)  with mixed at 3.4(17) and BSD based at 0.2% (1).