Andy Buckley <[log in to unmask]> writes:

> I bet if half the available batch CPU was on LCG-incompatible Linux distros,
> manpower would miraculously appear to provide compatibility with it...

Indeed.  Our modest 40 core Debian cluster and group-wide Debian
workstations are what led to porting Gaudi + LCGCMT to Debian.
Somewhat unfortunately for me, I was the manpower.  It was quite a
painful process but it did discover lurking bugs.

> I would view the non-portability of experiment software as a
> largely-unconsidered source of error and uncertainty in LHC simulation and data
> handling... surely that's pretty pessimistic! But yes, I'm idealistic.

I agree.  Monocultures lead to unhealthy pathologies, ones that can
lurk for a long time before being discovered.

Also, I think the view that it is more efficient to standardize on a
single platform is wrong.  When one has to make software build and run
on multiple systems it makes the software easier to install and use.
This benefits users of the mainstream platform as well as those on
marginalized ones.

-Brett.