Seems the Large Hadron Collider's computers run their work with the open-source Linux operating system.
As the blog notes, this is a wise choice.
1) Bill Gates owns enough stuff -- we can't have him owning a black hole as well. Although plenty of Windows users I know suggest that Windows Vista sucks everything in and produces nothing in return, so he might already be on the way.
2) When you're smashing protons together at 99.9% of the speed of light, you do not want to see the blue screen of death. Be kind of a downer to have the earth's orbit forever after occupied by a big blinking "Epic Fail" sign.
3) What might have happened if all those computers linked together suddenly gained awareness and started operating the LHC for their own purposes? I bet the stupid paper-clip animation for the Microsoft Office Assistant has got plenty of suppressed anger after all the things that have been said about it and I shudder to think of the fate of humanity should it get its hands on something like this...
(H/T Dustbury)
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