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I'd like to ask about the rationale behind closing my question about compilers for AMD Bulldozer CPUs.

The FAQ for ServerFault states that questions about (quote)

  • Server and Business Workstation operating systems, hardware, software and virtualization

are on topic, as long as its not just (quoted again)

  • Product, service, or learning material recommendations

As I asked for benchmarks that are ultimately intended to optimize the utilization of servers (as opposed to concrete product recommendations), I don't see the problem. Even if you feel that this question is more on topic on Stackoverflow, why close it instead of migrating it?

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  • Asking for benchmarks is an exercise in futility. Benchmarking is your responsibility, as only you can reliably test your workload in your environment. Anybody can give you numbers, but they won't matter a lick of difference to you.
    – gWaldo
    Aug 30, 2012 at 19:24

2 Answers 2

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Sysadmins generally don't get involved with choosing development tools, although, once one has been chosen, keeping it up to date and and managing it's lifecycle would likely become part of our duties.

Just because your application may run on a 'Server' or be a 'Server' doesn't mean that the compiler is optimizing for a 'Server' - it's optimizing for a CPU.

As such it your question is most likely a better fit for Stackoverflow.

why close it instead of migrating it?

I headed the migration off at the pass.

We don't know if it's really on topic for Stackoverflow, or if it's already been asked and is therefore a duplicate.

It's not really difficult for you to copy+paste once you've been and checked yourself.

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  • Thanks for this explanation, this clarifies it a bit for me. I still don't quite see why this would be considered a "product recommendation", as you state in your comment below the original question, but I see how this misunderstanding of the FAQ was caused: In the environment I work in, it is the sysadmins who choose and install the compilers that the system's users then use to compile their HPC jobs.
    – jstarek
    Aug 29, 2012 at 10:30
  • @jstarek, allowing a sysadmin to choose dev tools is just as stupid as allowing devs to dictate how to configure a server. The two should stick to their own fields. Some of us are both but we probably understand better than most why it should be that way. Aug 30, 2012 at 9:47
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The first line of your Question is "I am looking for a $PRODUCT that supports $FEATURES". I'm not sure how you could possibly interpret that as anything but shopping.

Iain lays out why putting "server" in the Question does not make it automatic SysAdmin duty.

We did not migrate it because it's a shopping Question, and they're off-topic on all Stack Exchange sites. You can probably rework the question to be acceptable on Stack Overflow; but as it is now, no.

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