Thanks to Gavin and Alban for additional considerations, all very useful.
As for Linux, I have to admit that I am biased too! I use it heavily, which
is the reason I would incline for its use. But after all, since I'm not
going to administrate the server, the best choice will probably be IT
choice! As long as it makes sense from a user perspective (performance,
feature set, usability, etc.)...
Thanks again! As usual, feel free to add more to the discussion, but there
are already plenty of information that is very useful to start the process
with IT in my center!
Best,
Mathieu.
Le 12/02/2015 08:34, Alban Hertroys a écrit :
> On 12 February 2015 at 00:38, Mathieu Basille
> <basille.web@ase-research.org> wrote:
>
>> Platform
>> ========
>>
>> Linux is the platform of choice:
>> * Easier administration (install/configuration/upgrade), which is also true
>> for addons/dependencies (starting with PostGIS, but also GEOS, GDAL, PL/R);
>> * Better performance [4];
>> * More tuning options (limited with MS systems);
>
> It has to be said that Linux isn't the only choice there. For example,
> FreeBSD (or NetBSD/OpenBSD) are popular choices for Postgres database
> servers as well and they perform great and have splendid documentation
> (an area where I often find Linux a little lacking). They might even
> be a bit more stable.
>
> There are also still several commercial UNIX flavours. I can't say how
> any of these alternatives (in combination with PostGIS) compare to
> Linux though, nor whether PostGIS is even available on all of these,
> but I suspect they're at least on par for performance and stability.
>
> Of all of these, Windows is probably the least suitable OS for the job.
>
> Which is the most suitable depends on quite a few things, not in the
> least how likely you'll be able to get experienced support for them.
> If you're new to the OS and you have to support the system yourself
> for any length of time, I think that good documentation is a factor to
> take into account.
>
> Am I biased? Definitely.
>
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Mathieu Basille
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