This short article, specifically written for www.gnqs.org, provides an introduction to Generic NQS - the
topic of this web site.
What Is Generic NQS?
Generic NQS is an OpenSource™
batch processing system for UNIX operating systems.
Batch processing systems were traditionally used to share
limited computing power between people.
Today, batch processing systems are also used to place work
on workstations outside office hours. This approach makes the most of your
investment in costly UNIX workstations. And, with the steady advance of UNIX for PC
computers, you can combine Generic NQS and Linux to build processor farms for just a
fraction of the price of commercial systems.
Where Does
Generic NQS Come From?
Generic NQS can be directly traced back to COSMIC NQS, a
batch processing system written for NASA in 1985/1986.
This makes Generic NQS one of the original batch processing
systems for UNIX, along with a system called MDQS (which is still in use by the US armed
forces).
Today, Generic NQS is maintained by
individuals over the Internet, just like more famous products such as Linux, or the Apache web
server.
What Is Generic
NQS Good At?
Scheduling computer programs to run on a single computer, or
a network of computers.
What Is Generic
NQS Bad At?
Scheduling parallel processing. The next major release
of Generic NQS hopes to address this issue, but for now if you need to be able to do this,
we recommend that you consider one of the alternatives.
Which
Operating Systems Does Generic NQS Run On?
Over the years, Generic NQS has been reported to run on the
following operating systems:
AT&T SVr4, AIX, Digital UNIX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, IRIX,
Linux, Solaris, SunOS, ULTRIX, UNICOS
Much of the work in recent years has gone into making Generic
NQS portable to as many different versions of UNIX as possible.
If Generic NQS does not run on the operating system of your
choice, and you're willing to provide us with an account on your computer over the
Internet, let us know, and we'll happily port Generic
NQS for you.
Where Can I
Get Generic NQS From?
You can get Generic NQS from the following places:
- Download the software from
the Internet.
We hope to include future versions of Generic NQS with
distributions of the Linux operating system.
We hope to include future versions of Generic NQS with
distributions of the FreeBSD operating system.
What Do I
Need To Use Generic NQS?
We supply Generic NQS as source code. Your computer
must include an ANSI C compiler. This will turn the source code into computer
software you can run.
Some versions of UNIX require you to pay extra to purchase an
ANSI C compiler.
Generic NQS must be installed by your computer's system
administrator.
Generic NQS can be used on a single computer, or a whole
collection of computers connected via TCP/IP networks.
This Sounds
Great! How Much Does Generic NQS Cost?
Nothing.
You can download and use Generic NQS for anything you want,
and you will owe us nothing at all.
Generic NQS is not public domain code. Public domain
code is not copyrighted. Generic NQS is copyrighted.
Generic NQS is not shareware. Shareware requires you to
pay a fee to the copyright holders if you continue to use the software beyond a certain
length of time (usually 30 days). You can use Generic NQS for years, and you will
still owe us nothing at all.
Generic NQS is distributed under the GNU General Public License. This license
guarantees your right to a copy of the Generic NQS
source code.
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