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Confusion here seems to stem from the fact that Linux calculates load average differently from most UNIX systems: on most systems, only running or runnable threads count towards the load, but Linux also includes threads in certain types of sleeps (i.e., disk I/O). This difference becomes most significant during storage system stalls, such as NFS server failure, where the load average on Linux will spike because many threads will be blocked in NFS I/O indefinitely. I've updated the article a bit to reflect this distinction, but no of no other UNIX system that takes this approach.
It is my firmly held belief that most Unix systems (any that I've come across, certainly) behave in the way which
is described to be specific to Linux, in that processes in short-term wait, such as waiting for disk I/O to complete,
will contribute to the calculated load on the machine. This is certainly true for NetBSD, almost certainly true for
all the relatives (the other BSD flavors) given the common heritage. I'm also pretty sure that both Solaris and
HP-UX also behave in this manner, i.e. include processes in short-term uninterruptible wait as contributing to the
load on the machine.
[[Special:Contributions/212.59.34.129|212.59.34.129]] ([[User talk:212.59.34.129|talk]]) 08:37, 19 November 2009 (UTC) Harald
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