High performance computing is a realm in which Linux dominates over the other operating systems. In the Top500 list released in June, almost three supercomputer sites out of four run Linux. Drivers and middleware for high-end HPC cluster hardware, typically for specialized high performance interconnects such as Myrinet, InfiniBand or QsNet, are generally more widely available, stable, fully featured and efficient on Linux than on any other OS. However, there would be significant benefits for all parties to work on adding a better framework for the specialized HPC networks to the base Linux code.