OSS, HPC, and Everyone Else
There are some fabulous anti-OSS observations in this article - namely that if you know your shit you don't have to pay for an operating system with OSS.
Before I get into the HPC bit (and get flamed to death for what I said above), I'd like to point out that financial success in OSS is never going to come from big business. Unfortunately that crushes the dreams of lots of the Open Saucers but they've never had a good grasp on business. Big money it tech only comes from mass adoption and by and large OSS can't get it done.
Back to HPC. In my time at ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) the "Leadership Computing" people all bitched constantly that they had to hire some "super geek" (this coming from uber-geeks) to develop the programs and handle administration during their (rare) computing privileges. Most of the HPC people are advanced grad students who are working off of grants and every dime is important. Many of them feel that their limited funds are being wasted on finding and recruiting Linux people. The work they are doing might make them famous or rich, but the work has to be done first; they think that weirdo computer crap is harming their chances of fame/wealth.
If Windows can get into the HPC market with just one or two wins then they'll be made. Linux will quickly be replaced by Windows in the market and unbelievably be cheaper for the supercomputer owners. They'll only have to purchase the licenses once and since computing time is such a rare commodity it works out cheaper than hiring a battalion of OSS guys that never seem to agree on anything once they are grouped together.
Windows isn't getting into HPC on a lark. They've been getting requests at the highest levels of government and science for years you know.