Slowly but surely, I need to move my domain to a new (virtual?) web server. Currently, my sites are hosted on a virtual SuSE 9 server of a former colleague of mine, but he is going to retire and is giving up his business.
I am now evaluating several options, and I would like to be able to also install BlitzMax binaries on that machine. Other requirements include the ability to run Wordpress and maybe some Python scripts on the same (virtual) machine.
A nearby hoster offers virtual FreeBSD servers (and FreeBSD is my favorite Open Source OS) and the prices aren't bad for the package.
I currently don't have Beastie installed anywhere, so I cannot try it out for myself. Has anybody tried to run BlitzMax apps on FreeBSD (with Linux API-compatibility enabled) and how well did it work (if at all)?
If it's a no go, I could still think about renting a Mac Mini co-location or maybe a virtual Linux or Windows server.
Any feedback would be very welcome.
The more I think about it, the more I tend towards a virtual Win2003 machine. Should cause -me- the least problems and provide the highest compatibility for everything that I might want to do with it (including IronPython and BlitzMax).
True, a VPS with Windows 2003 would cause you the least problems. You could even code and compile BMax apps via RDP (cool or what), handy to save ftp uploads after upgrading code and compiling.
I guess a similar thing would be possible via Linux but it's just so easy with Windows and comes as standard with a Windows 2003 VPS :)
I tried a Windows 2003 VPS once and I loved it apart from 1) it's not quite as fast as a Linux one (same spec). 2) Guzzled more resources. 3) SQL server express requires a big chunk of resources compared to MySQL.
Apart from that I'd of kept it as I'm much more familiar with Windows than Linux so configuring was a breeze through RDP. I'll stop there before this thread turns into a Windows hosting vs Linux hosting :p
We recently ran our stuff on Win2003, mostly stable, but as mentioned before: uses more resources and not as fast as Linux is.
You can code BlitzMax in Linux as well; speed and stability (imo) vs less complication and less problems ;)
Thanks for your feedback, folks!
The funny thing is that hosteurope.de is offering their Windows Servers with MySQL pre-installed instead of SQL Server (Express). Because of the licensing, I'd prefer PostgreSQL and asked them if their idea of "full administrative privileges" also extends to installing all kinds of software on the box. It's night here in Germany, so I probably won't get their answer before tomorrow.
I liked the Windows 2003 servers that I had running at my last job and never had an issue with them. I also had a full Terminal Server running there which made my life MUCH easier. I really love that technology! (Back in the late 90s, I also was a huge fan of RAS for the very same reason.)
At that job, only a Debian Linux-based Panda Gate Defender appliance gave us real headaches two or three times. Shortly after I had quite, that GateDefender brought the external communication of the office down for almost a week (all the external traffic was routed through it, and it was the second line of defense after the Cisco Firewall).
The SuSE 9 virtual server my current website is running on has regular problems with its mail servers, by the way. It's really annoying and my colleague who runs the machine never managed to fix it - the server is now automatically restarted every 24 hours or so by a CRON job.
Another thing that really bothers me about Linux is the 'distro jungle', meaning that it is not safe to assume that one distribution is compatible with another.
Hosteurope gives you the choice between OpenSuSE 10.3, Debian Etch or Ubuntu 6.06; OpenSuSE is their default and that would give me Mono out of the box, just in case I'd be interested in doing something with C# or IronPython.
The performance issue. Ok. When the time comes, I'll probably choose the 30 bucks per month option anyhow, which includes 1 GB of guaranteed RAM and higher CPU speed than the cheaper offers. I know that IIS is slow by nature, but I still have some hopes that the additional guaranteed RAM might help a bit.
Still, me being more comfortable with Windows Servers is a big plus against the slightly better performance of Apache on a Linux machine. In my experience, it's also only the initial connect to IIS that's slower; once the client has been accepted by the server, the pages are served quite smoothly (at least when running Sharepoint).
It's night here in Germany, so I probably won't get their answer before tomorrow.
Try
these guys on for size. They should offer a solution to fit just about anyone's (reasonable) requirements and budget.
Hey thanks, they look really good! :)