Debian 6 vs. Solaris 11

[whooleo]

Which OS (Debian 6 x86-64 and Solaris 11 x86-64) would provide better performance for a minecraft server? Also which OS would be better/faster for running Java applications?

Minecraft server:

CPU: Athlon II X2 250
RAM: 2GB DDR2 800
Chipset: AMD 740G (690)

 

[sulumordna]

I think they would probably be very similar but Debian would be easier to use IMO

 

[asktod]

Solaris would run it better, but Debian is more user-friendly.

 

[whooleo]

So from a performance stand point Solaris is preferred? User friendliness doesn't matter for me Solaris is easy enough.

 

[sam_p_lay]

Actually I think Linux will outperform it in most things. There are many different metrics for performance though. You could take a look on Phoronix - tonnes of benchmarks on there including Solaris vs Linux benchmarking. Linux is faster in most things, but not everything.

 

[whooleo]

Actually I think Linux will outperform it in most things. There are many different metrics for performance though. You could take a look on Phoronix - tonnes of benchmarks on there including Solaris vs Linux benchmarking. Linux is faster in most things, but not everything.

Yeah I read some of those but it doesn't seem like I can find anything related to Java performance, that's what I'm after!

 

[sam_p_lay]

Yeah I read some of those but it doesn't seem like I can find anything related to Java performance, that's what I'm after!

To be honest, I'm not surprised about that - it's not something they tend to test. Best I could say there is if Linux is faster in most things, they will probably contribute to Java running faster. You could always install both and benchmark them yourself. Post the results if you do - would be interesting to know. You could even email Oracle and ask what they advise. Might take a while to get a response though. Or check the Java forums.

 

[Ijack]

Personally, I would be surprised if any theoretical differences were appreciable in practice. There are many other factors affecting the speed of a game server that probably drown out OS differences.

Go for the OS that you feel most comforatble with and that offers the features that you require. For instance, on any sort of server I would go for something that supports ZFS, which rules Linux out. But what is important to me may not list highly on your priorities. Performance (IMO) is almost always best dealt with at the hardware level.

 

[whooleo]

Personally, I would be surprised if any theoretical differences were appreciable in practice. There are many other factors affecting the speed of a game server that probably drown out OS differences.

Go for the OS that you feel most comforatble with and that offers the features that you require. For instance, on any sort of server I would go for something that supports ZFS, which rules Linux out. But what is important to me may not list highly on your priorities. Performance (IMO) is almost always best dealt with at the hardware level.

Well said! Funny you mention ZFS, Solaris 11 does indeed use ZFS by default which I definitely like. Well I guess I'll stick with Solaris 11 then. If anything Solaris should be faster than Linux with Java because you know Solaris and Java are under the same roof but who knows.

 

[whooleo]

Best answer selected by whooleo.