Windows or Linux?

BLOMASKY

I have a potential new customer who will require a cloud based solution. Is there any reason to NOT use Linux since it is much cheaper than windows? I have only used Aware windows so far. Does Linux give me a GUI so I can view logs in real time? Any suggestions?

Bruce

PointsWell

As long as you have a desktop installed you can run the full GUI.

joben

BLOMASKY wrote
Is there any reason to NOT use Linux since it is much cheaper than windows?

If you are equally good at Windows and Linux, pick what you prefer. If you don't know a lot about Linux, don't use it in a production evironment unless you like working extra hours 🙂

UnionSystems

We’d prefer to use Linux but you need to run a Windows AwareIM server if you want to use the User Defined Documents functionality with MS Word or MS Excel documents as you need to have MS Word installed on the AwareIM server?

Rem

So, do you really NEED Windows server. We are running all our systems on Windows servers, but we are also Microsoft partners. Can you not use Windows 10? Do you need any of the added functionality that a server OS has? I don’t think you will need AD, DNS, Hyper-V, cluster or whatever.

If I was you, I would try with Windows 10 and see if it works.

gernotlg

I'm not far from launching myself, so I if may add further query to this discussion..

From what I can make of this is (going by above responses) ...

"..To run on Linux, you need to have a desktop.. "

1... so we'd need a distro with a GUI ?

What would be the best distro for that ? Or what are you veterans running your AwareIM servers on ?

I have a VPS setup for this already, but haven't installed AwareIM server yet.. and can change Linux distro before I install. I can even change to Windows... but I don't see any sense in making a server out of windows when we all know windows is a just a resource hog with more security holes than you can poke a stick at.

So really my only question is for any suggestions of a Linux Distro with GUI that would be best as an AwareIM Server, and running MySQL 8 ?

Thanks

joben

Never ran AwareIM on Linux, but I can give you some basic information that might come in handy:

Linux distros like Ubuntu come in different flavors, like server versions with pre-installed packages for a server environment, desktop versions with a GUI out of the box, etc. All of these packages can be installed afterwards so it's not really a big deal if you don't get it right the first time. You can even change to a different GUI if you don't like the included one.
But the thing that probably matters the most is that you get a LTS version so your distro is supported for a long time.
Upgrading between major versions is something I personally like to avoid.

My opinion is that if you are familiar with Windows, you should go with it. As long as you update it regularly, there is nothing to worry about security-wise. Remember that Linux had a serious security flaw in Bash since 1989 that wasn't officially discovered and patched until 2014. This sort of stuff happens, even in the Open Source world.
Windows does use more resources than Linux, but RAM sticks are pretty cheap 😃

gernotlg

Thanks

nhofkes

It's been a few years since this discussion. I wonder whether there are new insights, or experiences with running Aware on Linux platform? So far I have been running it on Windows Server 2016, but need to change/upgrade that. I am considering to switch to another VPS and noticed the price difference between Linux vs Windows, and the difference in required disk space. Also, I have experienced that I don't use the OS itself very much - I normally only interact with the Aware server and MariaDb, so as long as I could get that to work I should be okay. On the other hand, I am mindful of a potential steep learning curve, I would rather spend that time in further development of my app than getting to know the quircks of Linux. I have worked with Linux in the past, I had my own server running on Linux, but that is a long time ago. I'd love to hear your views and experience.

rocketman

Funnily enough, I'm about to jump to V10 and was looking to cut costs in order to fund it. Has anyone any thoughts on Linux Mint? which is meant to be an OOB install for numpties like me.

PS - I know nothing about Linux - I only know that Microsoft are extracting the urine with their server pricing

customaware

IMHO, if you know nothing about Linux.... then go with Windows.

I use Upcloud and the pricing, while not the cheapest, is definitely a LOT cheaper than say AWS.

As an example, one of my servers is 12 Core, 24Gb, 160Gb and 256 Euro per month. Another, 4 Core, 8Gb, 160Gb is 102 Euro per month.

Contabo is cheaper but I there are features on Upcloud that I cannot live without and their customer support is fabulous.

Definitely not posting this other than to pass on the info. But, if you do take a look and want to go that way, here is a referral code that will give you a 25 Euro Credit.

[(https://signup.upcloud.com/?promo=F7YB75)]