Kernel Summit 2009: How Google uses Linux

[microchip8]

There may be no single organization which runs more Linux systems than Google. But the kernel development community knows little about how Google uses Linux and what sort of problems are encountered there. Google's Mike Waychison traveled to Tokyo to help shed some light on this situation; the result was an interesting view on what it takes to run Linux in this extremely demanding setting.

KS2009: How Google uses Linux [LWN.net]


The Day 1 and 2 article opened up for non-paying subscribers so here's the full link The 2009 Linux Kernel Summit [LWN.net]

[oldcpu]

Interesting that the biggest user of Linux finds it necessary to massively optimise the kernel for their own use, because in part they recognize that a lot of their optimisation is not applicable to anyone else.

Even though I did not understand most of the technical, it was still an interesting read.

Thanks.

[microchip8]

This is actually needed for various reasons. At the high-end monsters, Google uses custom build machines with very specific components and because the Google devs do not participate enough within the mainline kernel community, it's unaviodable not to tweak and patch the mainline kernel for their needs - there are others who do the same, it's not just Google. As stated in the article, they are trying to change things and work much more closely with the mainline kernel community