Interest in Linux clusters is increasing, according to a survey conducted at the recent 2004 ClusterWorld Conference and Expo.

The survey found that 69 percent of the show attendees who responded to the survey were running a computing cluster and 66 percent of those respondents were running Linux clusters. The survey was conducted by Panasas, Inc. and Rackable Systems. Panasas is a provider of object-based storage for scalable Linux clusters and Rackable Systems manufacturers rack-mount servers for data centers.

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About 79 percent of the respondents said that Linux was their first operating system choice, the companies said in a statement. Those who had deployed Linux clusters said they were satisfied with the results, with 63 percent saying that they have achieved better performance than their previous system.

The survey also found some concern about a lack of enabling technologies for compute clusters, with 67 percent of those not planning to deploy a cluster citing such issues.

"These findings reinforce what we hear customers state everyday, Garth Gibson, CTO of Panasas said in a statement. "Linux clusters are delivering order-of-magnitude benefits to customers looking for exceptional price performance."