[Discuss] Why use Linux? (back to original question)

[markw at mohawksoft.com (markw at mohawksoft.com)]

Yes, back on topic is good.

In a web environment you should be using Linux, hands down. I'll amplify
this assertion a little bit as well, you should make sure your web service
environment is in a virtual machine on Linux.

The shear number of tools available on Linux is just simply amazing.
Screen, ssh, PAM, qemu, libvirt, virt-manager, X, and yes, I said it, The
X Window Manager.

On Linux you can support sparse files, to you can do something like this:

touch myvmsystem.img
truncate -s 64G myvmsystem.img

That gives you thin provisioning on your VMs.  If your file system is
created on an LVM volume, you can expand it, snapshot it for backup, or
what ever.

NOT available on Mac.

(You can do this with ZFS as well, zfsonlinux.org)

I could go on and on, but if your computer is doing more than checking
email, going to facebook, or watching netflix, you should be using Linux.



> A discussion of the ethics of Apache/MIT license vs GPL, however
> interesting, has long since departed from Micky's requested topic still on
> the Subject: line, which was motivated as, how to sell (Gnu/)Linux as
> alternative to Windows Server as host for Drupal.
>
> So can i rephrase OP's question as ,
>
> *What are the (dis)advantages for set-up and administration of Drupal [or
> other similar packaged FLOSS software] served from a Unix-oid OS, vs.
> Windows Server ?*
>
> * I'd say SSH and screen or other text terminal mux are big wins for
> Unix/Linux here.
>    But ease of working remote commandline presumes the skills to do so as
> well.
>
> * For "admins" needing to use non-web remote fullscreen admin
> tools (whether due to lack of CL skill or lack of CL tools to admin a
> commercial package), Windows remote desktop tools may be easier than
> arranging X-window forwarding, especially if they don't usually have
> X-windows at their desktop otherwise (which has odd security concerns most
> happily ignore).
>     Some packages have Windows native admin tools that can run remote
> against a Linux edition of the package (mySQL/mariaDB), but this is the
> exception.
>
> * Most Linux distros will install all prereqs for Drupal with Drupal, and
> can be set to auto-update all layers for security patches, top to bottom
> with one mechanism. On Windows, MS layers patch monthly and Drupal and its
> dependencies will patch differently on their own schedules.
>
>
> ( One might ask further, how does it change if virtualized vs on dedicated
> hardware ? )
>
> Only after answering that should one maybe delve into differences between
> Proprietary Unix (AIX, HPUX, Solaris, True64, Mac Server =
> BSD/Mach-Darwin)
> and FLOSS (Gnu/Linux, Gnu/Herd, *BSD, RedHat, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, etc,
> etc. )
>   But in reality, most hosting providers offer pretty much the same
> shortlist of Windows and Linux variants and don't offer Unix, and why
> would
> you at Collo or at home either, unless a big AIX or Solaris shop
> otherwise.
> Certainly there are security advantages to using Gentoo, NetBSD, or
> particularly FreeBSD in exposed Colo environment !
>
>
> - Bill
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