[Havoc]

wow their UX is atrocious.

* Download page doesn't explain why there are 3 packages and which you need

* On installing first & clicking next it pins all CPU cores to 100%

* The package that presumably controls this silently fails to install - on a brand new up to date ubuntu install.

...so now I'm stuck with a service pinning everything to 100% (while in use) and no way to control it. Uninstalled.

I'll stick to BOINC.

(edit: tried the terminal route - seems to fail because of python-gnome2 dependency). You'd think they'd get their stuff to work with Ubuntu...it's at a mere 50% of nix marketshare.

[thrownaway954]

THANK YOU!!!! I was just going to comment this.

I went to their website and gave it the 5 second test. I couldn't figure out ANYTHING through their homepage in a 5 second scan. There is ZERO call to action that makes any sense on their homepage. WTF is folding? Why not just say, HELP US FIND A CURE? What's funny is that I can bet these projects sit in a conference room and wonder why they aren't getting the support they deserve and it's all because they NEVER explain themselves correcly to the average layman.

[jolmg]

> WTF is folding?

folding@home is a protein folding[1] simulator.

> Why not just say, HELP US FIND A CURE?

Though their work helps others find a cure, they themselves are not looking for a cure. Their contribution is only to help understand these things better by simulating the proteins folding.

I'm not saying this to downplay their work, but to explain why referring to folding and not to curing makes more sense. I imagine that it may even be the case that not all their work is with the aim of helping find cures.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_folding

[thrownaway954]

you're missing the point. what they do is incredible but it is not explained simply their website to the common visitor.

[UncleOxidant]

I don't think BOINC is that much better. I got it installed and running and got 'cannot connect to core servers'. Nothing on their download page talked about where to go next for instructions either. After googling around I see something on a message board about opening up certain ports. If they want people to help out with this stuff the first thing they need to do is improve their documentation and onboarding.

At least I got the FAH thing to run, but only on the CPU not the GPU. I give up.

[olejorgenb]

I also had trouble getting the GPU to work. Maybe this helps: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22577145

[Havoc]

BOINC behaves very nicely on the CPU. You can tell it how many cores to use and how much total cpu time.

So you can easily set it to keep say 4 cores free for the user at all times