I've learned from FAQ that there are plans to release linux agent in 2005...
So only 2 questions:
1. Can we expect it in the first half of the year?
2. Is there any chance for 64-bit version?

Regards,

The WCG tech who wrote on Nov. 17, 2004 that support for other OS's was hopeful. But would not come anytime soon, was not joking.

This is really a shame since IBM who runs this grid was and is very hot on linux at least. I have 10 linux based servers with thier cpu cycles just blowing in the wind.

Cant use the other platforms that do support something other than windose since they are open source and it is against policy to use open source on these servers other than the apache.

We are trying to get a Linux version before the end of the year, and if we are lucky and productive, perhaps earlier. We think a lot about Mac also, but Linux is what is on the plate first. Please be patient, since this is philanthropic project, we don't have a lot of $ and people to work on it.

According to the Grid developer Rick Alther, Rosetta (the app that actually does the folding work) was written for Linux and had to be ported to Windows. It seems like the only Windows-specific stuff is the fancy graphics and screensaver which most of us don't care about.

Would you describe what the challenge is on your side that makes this so hard? I'm pretty curious.

Why not open the source? Then you get 100x as many people helping you . :-)
The only reasons I can think of are:

• Fear of people sending in bogus results in order to inflate their points:
  A legit concern, but this can almost certainly be done now by cracking the Windows Agent. Besides, for every 1 bad guy falsifying results, you would have a 1000 good guys returning good results.
  Please tell me you already validate results by sending data chucks to multiple people and comparing the results.
  
• You're not allowed to since you licensed all or part of the Agent code:
  Why on Earth would you have locked yourself into a specific company? The algorithms to do the folding aren't a secret (are they?) Why not build your own system instead of hacking someone else's?
  

Open the source and you'll have a Linux version within a month. :-)
If the source cannot be opened, release the design spec with the algorithm and the Linux version will be ready in three months :-)

(I'm posting to this old thread since several of the more recent "I want a Linux client" threads have links back here as the definitive explanation of the situation)

Scott

--
Play Carnage Blender. A free multiplayer strategy RPG. Make new friends, then kill them.

I'm sure whomever is working on the Linux agent has put a lot of thought into the design and is working hard. I don't mean to suggest otherwise.

I suppose my question really boils down to: I (and many others) would like to do more that just run a screensaver, where do we sign up? (To help make a more accessible and multiplatform implementation of the folding software for example)

The website is all very slick... but it doesn't seem to contain any real information other than installation and basic troubleshooting of the windows agent. The copy seems pretty vague and bland to me as if it was run through a PR firm or a lawyer once or twice. Questions about, say, a Linux client, are basically met with "We are working on it. It will be ready Real Soon Now(tm)".

Once again, I'm not knocking the hard work done by whomever is behind the curtain... but why is there a curtain? Where is the alpha/beta? Where are the design documents in case other people in the community want to help?

If this is a "World Community" effort then where is the community? Is it just the screensaver?


I don't mean any of that in an inflammatory way... I honestly want to know.