Linux servers vs. Windows servers

[Kareeser]

Hey all,

Apart from the fact that Windows "seems" to be buggier than Linux (please don't elaborate on that point for me), why do most businesses/users use Linux as a background for their servers?

I mean, they even have that acronym, LAMP, which includes Linux, but of course, there is no WAMP ...

What else sets them apart besides their "probability of crashing"? User handling? download?

[Statica]

There are actually wayy too many reasons for why Linux/Unix servers are quite popular than is in the scope of any such forum, but here's an exceptional read: http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html (you can find it through Wiki as well). If you want the short answer .. EVERYTHING sets it apart! Of course, you'd have to read the article from the perspective of the *NIX.
Now also keep in mind that the Windows world has made great strides in server adoption as well .. however, I think its more for compatibility than pure choice.

[Mac Medic]

I imagine TCO is a fairly good reason.

[faulkner132]

Depends. In my experience Windows Server OS's are extremely stable, they just seem to start dragging their feet when a significant amount of traffic is handed to them.

Use Windows if:
- You need to host ASP pages
- You want to run an application (i.e. Terminal Services or Citrix) server
- Your apps require SQL Server and a Windows authentication backplate (most small business software is like this)
- You are more comfortable using a GUI

Use *nix if:
- You want to run an "invisible" server (i.e. web, email, DNS) (Windows can do this as well, so tomato/tomatoe)
- You are concerned about cost
- You don't care about using command line for everything and don't mind reading man pages

[alfie2]

From someone who actually used Windows Servers for actual world situations, I would say Windows SUCKS major. We have a group of 20 workstations which does output large amount of data to the central server storage every second. needless to say, the network crashes at least 3 times daily, we have to reboot the server and work is stopped at the mean time___that is until we replace with a Linux server. for the past 3 years, we havenot seen a single crash. enough said.

[faulkner132]

Originally Posted by alfie2 From someone who actually used Windows Servers for actual world situations, I would say Windows SUCKS major. We have a group of 20 workstations which does output large amount of data to the central server storage every second. needless to say, the network crashes at least 3 times daily, we have to reboot the server and work is stopped at the mean time___that is until we replace with a Linux server. for the past 3 years, we havenot seen a single crash. enough said.

Odd, I haven't had any problems with a Windows server (once set up correctly) yet and I've deployed them in a variety of situations from a web server to a 50+ user Citrix farm environment. They handle the load quite well. As part of my maintenance plan, I have the servers reboot every week automatically, just to be safe.

What you are explaining sounds like something else might have been going on behind the scenes (I went through a similar situation in our first deployment). In some cases Windows has to be "massaged" quite a bit in order to make it stable, but overall they are solid.

[Kareeser]

Wow, what a comprehensive article! I'm still reading through it...

I've been poking around on apache on Windows XP for the fun of it, and I plan on getting a bunch of old computers to work as a dedicated server. I can't afford Windows, and it seems like Linux would be the better alternative.

It's just that I hate reading man pages, and learning commands... the GUI interface of Windows allowed me to learn how to use Apache in less than 10 minutes... whereas I was stuck with it all night long when I was playing around with it on Linux.

I suppose it's a matter of overcoming that first hump, and it would be smooth sailing

Thanks for the replies, everybody, they were very helpful!

[faulkner132]

As with any server OS, once you have it working there really isn't a need to fiddle. Ubuntu 6.06 Server Edition offers a LAMP server out of the box. Truely 0 configuration needs to be done to get up and running.