Hello There,

Before positing here, please read the introduction post first. I do not want to start a troll here and I hope people will not get me wrong. Again, the intention here is to describe your professional experience so as other professional can gain knowledge from your experience.

I wanted to explain how I came to the choice I have done and what are the pros and the cons of my own choice. Do the same and explain why have you choosed a certain OS or distribution among others and how do you feel with it in terms of comfort, advantages and disadvantages. The pros and the cons could be the same for many other systems as it may only depend on the technique, the skill or the knowledge you posess but, still, do not hesitate to share your experience.

Before I get started:
I have been working as a windows domain controller administrator for a few years in several companies and I have often proved that for handling domains, users and security policies, windows was more than a good choice but when talking about hosting and web servers or network application servers, or simply when we needed performance at affordable price, Linux was definitively a good choice. Still, I am conviced that if used properly, both systems have their pros and cons for running srcds. Please do not post here to say that windows sucks or that linux is too complicated or whatever, but just express your previous experience and keep constructive on your posts. Thanks a lot in advance.

My Choice: Debian Etch
For initial cost reasons and because of my particular background, I choosed to run servers on linux because it does not require licensing, or at least not for the OS itself. As for every distribution, choosing the right one depends on the one you already know and if you dont know any, then on the one that reflects or suits your approach at best. I prefer to favorize stabitlity and performance over ease of use and I had basic knowledge of debian sarge as most of the web servers I had built previously were done with that distro so it was quite a logical choice for me.

The pros:
The stability and security that makes the reputation of Debian
Based on a "per-user" file structure (/home/username/srcds/...)
The good learning curve, many tutorials on the web are for Debian
The ease of installing and finding many many software (apt)
The absence of GUI making it faster (might be a con for others)
The simplicity of installing and setting up an SRCDS on it

The cons:
The lack of support for mumble/murmur due to gcc lib version
Only handles "stable" releases of packages, usually no Beta or RC

This post was last modified: 04-09-2008 07:47 AM by kaine.

Before I get started
Never have worked at a hosting company or any type like that but I am obsessed with computers. Built my first computer when I was 11 . I know basic linux and of course windows.

My Choice (My first server): Windows XP Home Edition
Windows is mindlessly easy to do and learn. Perfect for a beginner.

Pros
A GUI
-That means easy to install srcds
-Easy to fix problems (well most of them)
-Easy to setup the OS
Only costs 100 about for a license
Can get 500 FPS
You name it, it works with Windows

Cons
Not very stable unless you set affinities, then its still not too good
Horrible dual-core managment
Cannot get 1000 FPS (Problem for some)
Unsecure
Does cost money
Made by Microsoft

with your can't get 1000fps with windows, is a lie! with 2008 can run 1000fps pretty flawlessly. We actually just started selling them, its actually pretty awesome. Reminds me too much of vista though, kinda scary.

Oh well I meant you cant get 1000 FPS on Windows Home