Now, the cluster I have access to is impressive (several hundred nodes of 4 cores machines, separate development and execution nodes). But as a grad student, it was one Dell PowerEdge server that was the head node to a PS3 cluster, and another Dell PowerEdge that served as the backup file server. Both of the Dell PowerEdges cost between $5-10k.
I did have luxuries - most of the time I was the only one using the machines. But as a grad student, I don't think I had access to more resources than someone at a small software firm. However, I did only need to deal with text input and output. I can see having to compile, execute and test locally when dealing with consumer software.
I did have luxuries - most of the time I was the only one using the machines. But as a grad student, I don't think I had access to more resources than someone at a small software firm. However, I did only need to deal with text input and output. I can see having to compile, execute and test locally when dealing with consumer software.