Linux VS Windows

[tcngs]

I have been reading tons of forums about the debate between Linux servers and Windows servers

 

I am wanting to get the best performance for my rtcwet servers and CS:Source servers

 

They are run on separate servers but does one game run better with windows vs linux or vice versa?

 

Thanks for the help

[DougK94]

Do you actually think you will get many pro linux posts here since TCAdmin is designed for windows?

 

The best OS for running any game, is the OS you are the most familiar with. You must be able to properly set up, maintain, secure, optimize and trouble shoot it. Just because OS A is best for User A, does not mean OS B is not the best for User B.

[tcngs]

Some of the articles I was reading about stated that you will get better memory utilization with linux than with windows.

 

and you can control the cpu utilization more with linux, all of my servers currently are Windows 2003

[Jissh]

Different games different performance for both OS's. I'll stick with Windows, don't have to wait for patches or ports and easier to manage IMO.

With that said I stick with Linux for web hosting though.

[swish]

IMO Linux is "better" for running games. BUT because I am not very proficent in linux i choose windows.

 

i also went with windows because it usually takes awhile to get a linux version of a game when a neww version is released. I do alot of Americas Army servers and now they have totally discontinued the linux support. Glad im with windows

[Defcon|Rich]

It is possible to gain slightly more performance out of a Linux OS by doing custom tweaking and rebuilding the kernel but unless you know how to do that stuff you will most likey break it..

 

Stick with Windows. ALL games were built for windows not "ported" over.

[swish]

Stick with Windows. ALL games were built for windows not "ported" over.

 

Exactly. Same reason I stuck with windows.

[JamesHarrison]

Speaking as someone who has operated Linux servers for years, and recently tried out TCadmin on Win32....

 

Windows as a server OS is disgusting. TCadmin support actually recommended I restart the entire machine as a fix for a bug in TCadmin- on Linux, when's the last time I had to restart a machine?

 

[gameserver_admin@intrepid ~]# uptime

16:40:09 up 243 days, 50 min, 5 users, load average: 0.17, 0.20, 0.25

 

I've had the best performance I ever had from Linux- Windows server performance in comparison is horrendous. And if you end up with a game you can't run in Linux, you can use Wine, which gives pretty good performance in comparison with Win32 with minimal overhead.

 

"Stick with Windows. ALL games were built for windows not "ported" over."

 

Wrong. Video games were invented on *nix. Linux was designed from the ground up for serving applications, including gameservers. Windows was designed from the ground up for playing games on.

 

As the saying goes: Linux for reliability, Macs for productivity, and Windows for Solitaire.

 

I've got better performance and stability out of Linux (With, I might add, no kernel tweaks or anything) than I did out of Windows Server 2003 (Fresh install with srcdsboost tool, non-critical services disabled). And you never have to restart an entire server as a deranged method of bugfixing.

 

 

From what I have seen of TCadmin's own administrators, TCadmin won't be supporting Linux. And I won't be having any problems with that...

[Daersun]

CentOS 4.x will only support up to 333fps, windows out of the box with srcdsboost will run 550fps.

 

Also, TCadmin has a linux verson now.

[Defcon|Rich]

JamesHarrison, You are of course entitled to your own opinion but your wrong on several points.

 

Video games were built on *nix

 

Try running any UBI game on linux and let me know how it works out for you then tell me games were built on *nix..

 

 

 

I understand the benefits of one OS over the other and each has it's place. We run all our voice servers on RH Enterprise for stability but for games Windows is much better all around.

[Edward]

It has been proven by many tests that the FPS of HLDS is much more stable than with Windows. Especially with Boosted servers!

 

With many games(not all) the FPS with Windows is a bit higher also. With BF2 for example, the difference is +/- 10%.

 

For HL based servers, I really recommend Windows. For most other games the performance difference is not a lot.

[Edward]

 

Try running any UBI game on linux and let me know how it works out for you then tell me games were built on *nix..

 

 

Still nightmares about Far Cry?

lol

[DougK94]

I still say on all of this, the BEST for anyone to use is the OS they are the most familiar and comfortable with.

 

Yes one OS may win out slightly on one game engine and another will win on another game engine. So it boils down to personal preference and since TCA was designed for Windows, a vast majority here will stick up for Windows over Linux. Both OS's have their stong and weak points.

 

Many will swear by one OS and others will swear at the same one. No matter what argument anyone makes for or against an OS, they will not convince the other side that their favorite OS is superior to theirs.

 

Do I wish TCAdmin supported Linux? Yes mainly so that these discussions would not be taking place here and so that TCAdmin could be the best for both Windows and Linux. But I do agree with their decision to drop the Linux support so that they can concentrate on being the best Windows game server control panel. Who are we to discuss someone else's business decisions? TCAdmin has carved a nice niche with their product and if that niche is not yours, you have the choice of competing products. TCAdmin suits my needs perfectly so I will be here for a long time.

[Monk]

*NIX has better syscalls, open source, etc. You can choose your timing with *NIX whereas windows you are forced to use ACPI as your timing source..

 

Recent microsoft hotfixes changes HAL to use ACPI as timekeeping rather than TSC. TSC is faster to read since it lives on the CPU; ACPI lives off the PCI bus.. ACPI requires an ioport read which takes around 1us.. Do that 1000 times a second and you have each CPU spending some (not measureable in task manager) of its time doing nothing but reading the clock. ouch..

 

The point is; if you see a large amount of jitter on your FPS stats, make sure you don't have /usepmtimer. ACPI is default on the newer MS hotfixes for dual core stuff.. I personally prefer TSC (the old method), but TSC can't sync on multiple cpu's, so unless you feel like rebooting your machine every x/y {hours,days} to keep the clock skew down, i would recommend it (TSC) over the rather.

 

In the last few years there hasn't been a fast, cheap way to do timekeeping in a way for multiprocessor machines on either windows or *NIX. So it's a preference game, stick with whatever you feel comfortable using..

 

My 2 cents.

[swish]

Leave it to Monk to get a technical and crap....lol jk good post.