It would be very nice to be able to merge computers even if they have differing operating systems. For example...used computer X for the project, but then installed a different OS on computer X. Should be able to merge these computers, but cannot.

This would be a boinc software suggestion rather than a cpdn specific one. You could go to the BOINC message boards and ask the question.

https://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_index.php

It would be very nice to be able to merge computers even if they have differing operating systems.

This could cause problems. The individual computers identity stores information such as the OS which enables it to get the appropriate type of work. My own profile shows 4 computers however in reality I only have 2. They run windows tasks when there are none available for Linux. If it is merging computers that have been repurposed with a change of OS or ones that have retired, I don't see a problem but in my case it would I think mess things up.

Hello,
Boinc considered, it is not possible !
I have two perfect same host (CPU/GPU/OS)
Only mainboard is different.
One host called "A" the other "B" I can not merge.
If I change the name "B" to also "A", Boinc accept merge tentative.
But refuse it because overlapping working date.
So not delete the old one, unless, on BoincStats, you can receive negative credits on your global stats.
But here on CPDN, not very important because very much problems with exporting stats to BoincStats, and problems with wide team.
I understand that they enforce security. But ...

I asked a similar question on the WCG forum, and got an detailed answer:
https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewpostinthread?post=601012
So, as you can see, the answer is no. Numerical computation is, well, quite a delicate thing...

I asked a similar question on the WCG forum, and got an detailed answer:
https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewpostinthread?post=601012
So, as you can see, the answer is no. Numerical computation is, well, quite a delicate thing...

That's a very good explanation, particularly so for WCG.

I'd like to be able to delete the old, obsolete computers in my account, some of which were scrapped over ten years ago.

This may not necessarily be a good idea as if I'm not mistaken, credit would be lost if a computer with credit is deleted. The only computers that would be safe to delete are those that for one reason or another have produced 0 total credit.

I'd like to be able to delete the old, obsolete computers in my account, some of which were scrapped over ten years ago.

This may not necessarily be a good idea as if I'm not mistaken, credit would be lost if a computer with credit is deleted. The only computers that would be safe to delete are those that for one reason or another have produced 0 total credit.

AndreyOR is close. You can delete your computer if it has never downloaded a task. But if it has downloaded one or more, even if the credit is 0 for it, you cannot delete that host/computer.

If some a computer listed on your host list is just a newer identified version of the same PC, you have a chance to try the Merge function for the host, which will merge the boinc-identified computers into one.

I'd like to be able to delete the old, obsolete computers in my account, some of which were scrapped over ten years ago.

This may not necessarily be a good idea as if I'm not mistaken, credit would be lost if a computer with credit is deleted. The only computers that would be safe to delete are those that for one reason or another have produced 0 total credit.

AndreyOR is close. You can delete your computer if it has never downloaded a task. But if it has downloaded one or more, even if the credit is 0 for it, you cannot delete that host/computer. If some a computer listed on your host list is just a newer identified version of the same PC, you have a chance to try the Merge function for the host, which will merge the boinc-identified computers into one.

The reason old computers are not deleted if they have run a task is because it allows scientists to investigate the computer that produced data for an experiment. Granted this rarely happens esp for old data but it's important to keep that option.

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CPDN Visiting Scientist