Rant - Microsoft Compute Server Still a Miserable Failure
Roy Schestowitz
Some folks have decided to experiment with Microsoft's latest ultimate super
ultra high-processor/computing offer. Guess what?
The computational server can -- for whatever reason -- accept only two
connections at the time. To make matters worse, one has to log off, so being
idle is out of the question. Even then, there are bugs that leave sessions
hanging, IIRC.
It gets worse.
40 nodes are available but sometimes only one is actually used. With two
users logged on, one would sometimes keep 39 nodes occupied while the other
gets just one.
I am told it's buggy. I am told it's unstable (even from people who favour
the use of Windows on the desktop). People who wanted to take this gamble
with Microsoft on the server are complaining and probably have regrets. "We
have informed Microsoft", they say, but what do they expect? Microsoft holds
the code and it's too arrogant to take care of bugs upon the customers'
demands (just look at Internet Explorer). Bill Gates, who is the mastermind
that insisted on releasing the product, will soon retire. The product was
released half-based after long delays.
Problems only on the server? You bet it ain't the case. A colleague of mine
is spending weeks (if not months) trying to run experiments on a Windows XP
laptop. Hibernation fails, jobs are crashing after long runtimes, and
certain movements of the laptop (e.g. the jerking in a car) lead to crashes
as well.
Thank you, Microsoft, for reminding people why software you produce is going
down the dustbin. It's better to produce a reliable desktop before deciding
to take entire clusters down.