Generally when a system is selected to be on the Top500 list after  
benchmark verification someone at the facility, usually the director  
or such, gets a request for system information. Generally any distro  
of Linux is put down as just "Linux". I've worked on several systems  
on the lists over the years, with many different distros, and they all  
get listed as Linux. If you were more specific such as Scientific  
Linux, then the list of OS's would balloon since you would have people  
putting in RHEL, RedHat, RedHat Enterprise, CentOS, CentOS 4, CentOS  
5, etc... There are already listed on the list 5 different releases of  
Suse, and 3 of RedHat. And then you have the case of some Unix  
variants, such as HP, being called Linux. The problem is there is no  
standardization for the question of OS. It just says "OS", and the  
site can enter in whatever they want. It would make more sense to list  
a distro and no versioning numbers.

On Nov 18, 2009, at 10:02 AM, Ken Schumacher wrote:

> The J/PSI cluster (#141 on the new TOP500 list) is indeed running  
> Scientific Linux 4.4.  Perhaps the reason it shows as Linux is that  
> when one uses 'uname -a' it does not show much detail.  I am pretty  
> sure Don submitted our results to the TOP500 and he may be able to  
> explain how this data field is populated.
>
> Ken S.
>
> [root@jpsi1 ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release
> Scientific Linux Fermi LTS release 4.4 (Wilson)
>
> [root@jpsi1 ~]# uname -a
> Linux jpsi1.fnal.gov 2.6.9-89.0.3.ELsmp #1 SMP Tue Jun 30 09:14:02  
> CDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
>
> On Nov 18, 2009, at 10:54 AM, Keith Chadwick wrote:
>
>> The J/PSI cluster at Fermilab is listed as running "Lunix",
>> and I believe that it is running Scientific Lunix.
>>
>> Don and/or Amitoj can comment further...
>>
>> -Keith.
>>
>> At 8:32 PM -0800 11/17/09, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
>>> I'm at SC09 this week.  Awesome hardware, awesome people.  The
>>> Top500 for the month was announced, Linux runs on 446+ of them,
>>> no surprise there.
>>>
>>> What is a surprise is the nonappearance of Scientific Linux on
>>> this list:
>>>  http://www.top500.org/stats/list/34/os
>>>
>>> I would assume SL would be running on many, if not most, of the
>>> big iron X86 array systems.  I would also assume more celebrity
>>> SL deployments means more funding for our heros at Fermi.  Is
>>> this a "don't ask, don't tell" thing?
>>>
>>> Keith
>>>
>>> --
>>> Keith Lofstrom          [log in to unmask]         Voice  
>>> (503)-520-1993
>>> KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in  
>>> Silicon"
>>> Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan  
>>> ICs
>
> ==============================================================
> Ken Schumacher  <[log in to unmask]>  (o) 630-840-4579 (f) 630-840-3109
> Computing Div/HPC  LQCD Group   Loc: WH8E   http://www.usqcd.org/fnal/
> Fermi National Accelerator Lab; PO Box 500 MS 120 Batavia, IL  
> 60510-0500