Linux also
fully supports and comes with a free version of the
TeX/LaTeX publishing package to generate publication
ready output
multi-user
network ready Linux offers the ability for researchers to
work on more powerful compute engines located anywhere on
a campus network, or anywhere else
easy access to
hardware level control for data collection and machine
control
Linux supports
clustering of several computers into
clusters.
The systems can used MPI
or PVM to create a parallel computer that can distribute
a single task across a large number of computers to
effectively give a single powerful "virtual"
computer.