Floss For Science

In episode 19, we interviewed Glenn Cooper the Head of experiment computing department at Fermilab about the history and future of the linux distribution Scientific Linux. The discussion started with a brief overview of current research activities at Fermilab. When then extensively talked about Scientific Linux, its goals, the reason why it was started and what made it successful. Glenn made a good argument about the need for a stable software platform in science. We then switched topics and discussed about the recent announcement in regard to the end of the project and the motivations for that. We then talked about the transition to CentOS at Fermilab and CERN and the upgrade path for current users. We concluded the interview with our usual quick questions.