What OS?

[DmX]

Hi,

am about to get a dedicated/co-located server for my consulting business. I have they choice of OS to put on the box. Since I have a budget for this I am not able to use a SUN machine and therefore have to pick something else. Most likely a PIV 2.4 + with 1.2 GB RAM. For you guys that have the big picture on server OS, what would be your pick? Would appreciate the prosncons for each. Thanks for your help.

[matt2kjones]

i also use redhat, and i like it.

it is easy to use. Basically, its a linux flavour that first got me into linux servers, and i have stuck with it.

i have had no problems with it, and 0 crashes since i have been running servers on it which has been years

[northwind]

for a web hosting server, Linux (red hat) has become the favorite of most hosting companies.

You can try, freebsd and debian but i believe red hat is the easiest.

[eHostSpace]

redhat for me

[pickles]

Originally posted by DmX@Feb 25 2003, 03:13 PM
Since I have a budget for this I am not able to use a SUN machine and therefore have to pick something else.

You might be surprised about the price of a Sun Machine. I run several Sun Fire V100's. They are available on http://www.sun.com starting at $995.00.

I buy third party memory, and a second HD (also third party, but pm me before you do this).

$995.00 Base Machine 40GB, 256Ram (http://www.sun.com)
$52.00 1 256 Ram Chip ( http://www.memoryx.com)
$89.00 1 512 Ram Chip ( http://www.memoryx.com)
$90.00 1 40 GB HD
=========
$1226 + s&h.

This set-up give me 1GB ram, and a pair of 40GB Hds running in a Raid 1 config.

I know a person can build an intel box cheaper, but this is one fine box.

The other concern may be support. I suspect getting Sun certified techs is more expensive, and possibly harder to obtain should the need arise. I host at a data center that staffs with 3-4 Sun Certified techs.

There are lots of free "Packages" for sun (equivelent to RPM's I think) that have pre-compiled versions of just about everything you need. Because I'm a control freak, I get everything source and do it my self.

Hope this helps.

Bob

[budwiser]

pickles,

your article is very useful.

[northwind]

I would of went with Sun Servers but like you said, it is hard to find a qualified sun server technicians and also cost a lot more I believe.

[Smith]

Web servers are supposed to be machines that you turn on and they run non-stop until eventually the hardware fails. So leave windows 98 me. Windows 98 is a consumer OS, a jack-of-all-trades that runs games, old DOS apps, MIDI devices, word processors, etc. It's not totally stable, because, well, it can't be--it's got to do too many things. The more variables you throw into an equation the more unstable it becomes. Anyone who's used Windows for more than a few hours knows this--hopefully you can use this to your advantage when talking to potential customers who've used Windows themselves.

I don't personally care for Windows NT / Windows 2000 for a server solution, but they're leagues better in terms of stability and performance than '98. '98 is a consumer OS with little protection against crashes, and nothing in the way of security features.

Linux--a variation of UNIX--is an industrial-strength OS not intended for the average "man on the street." It is incredibly well suited for use as a Web server, not only because of its inherent stability, but also because of the way it's been "bred" over the last few years; it's a custom fit for the world's most popular Web server, Apache (whereas the Web server capabilities of Windows is something of an afterthought). Linux/Apache has tremendous support across the Internet, due in large part to the fact that it's open source.

Sorry for the Long Long reply.. :lol:

[HarborNetworks]

Originally posted by pickles@Feb 28 2003, 04:35 PM

Originally posted by DmX@Feb 25 2003, 03:13 PM
Since I have a budget for this I am not able to use a SUN machine and therefore have to pick something else.

You might be surprised about the price of a Sun Machine. I run several Sun Fire V100's. They are available on http://www.sun.com starting at $995.00.

I'm with Bob. I'm running two SunFire V100's and I honestly can say you can't beat the performance you get. In all honesty, if your familiar with Linux and BSD, Solaris isn't too far off, and there is a lot of online references for help.

[eHostSpace]

I think Win98 doesnt have the stability to be used as a web server OS