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Title: GNU/Linux or Windows? Post by: phathash on February 28, 2011, 10:05:57 AM What are the advantages of using GNU/Linux over Windows for a dedicated miner?
1. GNU/Linux can boot (also live) from a low-powered $10 USB stick 2. Peformance (?) 3. ? Title: Re: GNU/Linux or Windows? Post by: Grinder on February 28, 2011, 10:18:33 AM You can log in using SSH and control pretty much everything, which means you can access all the functionality even from a smart phone with an ssh client. If you run your text mode programs using the program screen you can disconnect and reconnect later to the same session. Main drawback (for miners) is the lack of an Afterburner equivalent.
Title: Re: GNU/Linux or Windows? Post by: LMGTFY on February 28, 2011, 07:09:14 PM In addition to what Grinder said: licensing costs. Some miners will have one of those sweet "install Windows as many times as you want" licensing deals, but for most people it'll require a new licensed copy of Windows for each PC. Or the legal risk that not running licensed Windows entails... With Linux it's almost always free to install as many copies as you want, wherever you want.
"screen" is pretty sweet - I'd definitely agree with Grinder here. Start a screen session, tail your miners' logs, close the terminal, move to a new PC, reattach to screen and see your logs immediately. Title: Re: GNU/Linux or Windows? Post by: Mahkul on February 28, 2011, 09:03:17 PM No issues with crossfire on Linux (i.e. possible to turn it off and still mine with two or more GPUs)
Title: Re: GNU/Linux or Windows? Post by: [Tycho] on February 28, 2011, 09:52:54 PM No issues with crossfire on Linux (i.e. possible to turn it off and still mine with two or more GPUs) You can do this on Windows too, without switching off Crossfire.Title: Re: GNU/Linux or Windows? Post by: Mahkul on March 01, 2011, 12:09:58 AM No issues with crossfire on Linux (i.e. possible to turn it off and still mine with two or more GPUs) You can do this on Windows too, without switching off Crossfire.Apparently so, but I have had some hardship and gave up. I know some people managed to get it working. Title: Re: GNU/Linux or Windows? Post by: Cryptoman on March 01, 2011, 03:50:19 AM After following the development of Linux from the beginning, it's rather ironic to now hear about people who couldn't get something working under Windows and have to switch to Linux.
Title: Re: GNU/Linux or Windows? Post by: Garrett Burgwardt on March 01, 2011, 04:15:59 AM I have quite a bit of trouble getting certain things to run on Linux, or run at acceptable performance levels (mostly games). That's the only thing that keeps me from using it. Now, if Steam would come out with a port for linux....
Anyway, you can use an unlicensed copy of windows 7 for miners, it just makes a popup come up a few times a day, and if it's a headless miner you won't even notice ;) Title: Re: GNU/Linux or Windows? Post by: error on March 03, 2011, 04:27:32 PM Or go get a free copy of Windows (Web Server 2008/2008 R2) (and Visual Studio) directly from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/).
Not that I recommend using Windows; I certainly don't for most people! :) |