BOINC is an acronym for Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing. The software enables your computer to contribute to actual scientific research without you doing anything. BOINC can run lightweight computing projects on your computer once installed, and runs unobtrusively in the background. Such activities consume CPU or GPU power that was not used.
BOINC is not a research project by itself; it is an interface connecting your computer to dozens of science projects worldwide being operated by universities and science institutes. Such investments include disease research, climate, astronomy, physics, and mathematics. Your computer helps solve one of the parts of a greater problem and returns the results, after which it continues to the next task.
BOINC was developed at the University of California, Berkeley, and it is more than twenty years old and is currently one of the largest volunteer computing systems in the world. It is a background running application that can be set to operate only when your computer is idle, charging, or on Wi-Fi, depending on your choices.
In basic terms, BOINC converts ordinary computers into a distributed research instrument, and the user is not even required to have any technical knowledge.
Why Should I Download BOINC?
People download BOINC to make contributions to science passively. It only needs to be configured and a little to be handled. With proper hardware configuration, the software can operate its course without interruption, without much noise. This makes it appealing to those people who do not wish to spend money or additional time on research.
Flexibility is another cause. BOINC also allows users to select a research area they would like to contribute to—medicine, astronomy, among others. To be even more in control, you can select individual projects and even attend to community prioritization or long-term donation monitoring.
BOINC can also show you what your computer is doing. You can view the running projects, the amount of work that is done by your device, and the time it is in operation. This transparency makes the experience quite interesting and informative to a significant number of users.
In practical terms, BOINC is secure in nature. The tasks check and verify themselves, and the software restricts CPU, graphics, battery consumption, and network usage. This diminishes the possibility of performance problems.
It would be reasonable to download BOINC to find out more about the concept of distributed computing, to contribute to some research without making any big effort, or to simply occupy idle system resources with some meaningful activity.
Is BOINC Free?
Yes. BOINC is fully free to install. It does not have paid plans or subscriptions and hidden capabilities. The software is open-source and released under a free software license, which gives everybody the ability to check or make alterations to the code.
Even though BOINC is free, it links to various autonomous research studies. These are projects that are normally operated by universities or non-profit-making organizations, and there is no cost involved in the participation. Rewards and credits obtained are symbolic and are obtained primarily to make contributions rather than earn money.
What Operating Systems Are Compatible with BOINC?
BOINC supports the majority of operating systems. It can be installed by desktop users in Windows, Mac, and Linux. It also works with FreeBSD and other lightweight platforms, e.g., Raspberry Pi OS, which makes it appropriate to use on older or special-purpose hardware.
In the case of mobile users, an Android version allows phones and tablets to share computing power provided that some conditions are met. The mobile application usually operates only when the gadget is recharging and is in the Wi-Fi to avoid undue battery depletion. BOINC does not currently support iOS devices, and the Android app is distributed through official BOINC sources rather than the Google Play Store.
Because BOINC can be used both at the CPU and the GPU level, it also requires you to have compatible hardware. Most of the contemporary systems are working flawlessly; nonetheless, the performance and accessible projects vary with the type of devices and operating systems.
What Are the Alternatives to BOINC?
Folding@Home is a program that is very famous. This program is dedicated to one objective, which is to research protein folding and its connection with diseases. Against the backdrop of BOINC, Folding@Home does not provide numerous research opportunities, focusing primarily on biology and the issues in the healthcare domain. Folding@Home, like BOINC, runs in the background once installed and uses unused system resources. That is why it is liked by many people, as it is simple and does not require many decisions to make: it should be installed, a certain amount of shared power chosen, and it will work. It is, however, narrowly focused, which is not as diverse; in case you are interested in various areas of science, it can be rather limiting. You can easily download Folding@Home from its official site, and the download process is usually quick and simple for most users.
GPUGRID. GPUGRID is a very specialized alternative, and it is adapted to computers with a powerful graphics card. It specializes in molecular biology simulations and is quite dependent on the power of GPUs rather than that of the CPU. This makes it attractive to users because they have modern GPUs that require efficient usage. In comparison to BOINC, GPUGRID has fewer options, as it can do only one kind of scientific work. It is also possible to be less appropriate for older systems or devices without dedicated graphics hardware. It is also typically easy to set up, but with a smaller audience, and, therefore, may not be helpful to casual users unless they have the hardware to use it. GPUGRID can be downloaded by users who specifically want to put their GPU power to use for focused scientific research.
