Linux Vs. Windows

[Verran]

Ok, I think in the near future I'm going to start an actual farm. Until now, it's been five comps, but all with actual uses for real people. Now, I have a whole crap-ton of these P3 600 shuttle size boxes at work. I could stack them up in the basement and all they'd need is a hub and some power.

 

So what's better for a sheerly baseline OS to run folding, linux or windows? I'm by no means a linux expert, but I also don't fear it, and currently have several flavors on disc, and run RH9 on one box. The only thing I don't like about linux is that I haven't had a lot of luck monitoring [email protected]'s progress on EM3 when dealing with linux boxes. But when I think of a command line / telnet style OS, I definately think linux.

 

Basically... Is one proven better than the other for farm purposes?

[Nemo]

Building a farm using Windows vs. Linux really boils down to cost- how many copies of Windows do you want to buy vs. free Linux. Most of the farm setups I've seen run Linux for that reason. There shouldn't be a marked difference in performance from what I've read.

 

For a good starting point, check out this Linux Folding Farm Guide.

[Verran]

I hadn't thought of going diskless This is bad, now you've got me thinking.

 

Thanks for the info! These machines have disks in them, but maybe I'll pull them out and save on power. This gives me a lot of options, and it should be fun.

[bigr5026]

get a few hundred small hdds, go, load win 98, ghet a nic, ur good from thare