Hello bukkit users! I am running bukkit for about a half year on win xp, and it's time for some major changes. I'm a beginning web developer, and talking about servers with some fellow dev'rs, I noticed that linux is a better choise to run a server on. - The guy I was talking to said linux will use a lot less RAM => more RAM to bukkit. - using winXP, I have a lot of unnessecary things that are windows, so I believe linux will be faster question #1: will linux goes faster? My server has 1.5Gb RAM I believe, we're a small server and everything goes pretty well, but it always can be better - I searched some stuff about linux and bukkit. It seems much better because it can include auto backup and restart and things like that (I saw a script of it online) question #2: working on linux, will it be easier? I know linux doesn't have all the interface actions win has, but I don't care about that. atm, I log in with teamviewer on my server, how will it work if I use linux? - It seems linux is a bit complicated, but I go to a workshop linux and the guy who made his own linux webserver is going to help me. BIG question #3: now I have all plugins installed, will I be able to just put my server dir in a .tar file and put it on linux, done? Or does it needs more than that. I know java works on many platforms, so I believe it won't be a big issue. does anyone has some tips? peepz who went from win to linux? thanks for reading! Zipron
1) I find the speed up marginal at best (i host my server on a windows box just fine) 2) linux will probably be harder just because you are not used to it, as for backups windows can do that as well 3) you can just transfer a zipped version to linux just fine
1) RAM has nothing to do with speed. Linux is customizable -- if you use a fancy desktop GUI such as Gnome or KDE that uses a bit of ram, but if you don't want all the flash you can use something light weight that uses less ram, or no GUI desktop at all and just the command line. My VPS with just ubuntu command line only used about 300 megs of ram. Using a more hard core custom linux distribution such as gentoo you can reduce that to less than 100. Linux also does a much better job with memory and multi-core processor management than windows xp. 2) As mentioned it might be a little bit harder at first as linux would be new to you and you would have to relearn how to do things. While you can use teamviewer a better solution if you are just hosting minecraft is to use the command prompt and use a ssh terminal client. No need for teamviewer in that setup. 3) Yes that is all you need to do. My suggestion is dual boot with linux on your own machine. Ubuntu has a really good installer that does this automatically. Try out hosting minecraft on your machine before taking the plunge on your VPS.
Play around with Linux a bit first. Use a VM or dual boot your system. I have an Ubuntu guide in my sig that should get you up and running.
I too am wanting to move to Linux. Wouldn't it make more sense to start out working on Ubuntu desktop instead of server initially to get experience and become familiar with how Linux works? Maybe then down the road transition to full on Ubuntu server? Also CentOS was mentioned as a good Minecraf hosting option.
Yes to everything. But! While learning on the desktop can help you familiarize yourself with some of the concepts like package management, there are a lot of skills that you just don't get until you make the plunge into the command line.
Become familiar with the command line first, install linux dual boot or something and see if you want to deal with it.
Depends on how you want to approach it. If you want to learn the desktop side of Ubuntu, sure, start with the desktop version. Keep in mind, any GUI you want can be installed on the server version, so why not use the server version? If he feels more comfortable with a GUI, Gnome is a good choice.
Perhaps a good Linux book would be a good start. Maybe one of these. Beginning Ubuntu Linux: From Novice to Professional Linux All-in-One For Dummies Linux Bible 2011 openSUSE- Distributions with VirtualBox VM's to test
I switched from Win XP to Ubuntu 11.10 two weeks ago. I don't know enough about Linux yet, but I can say the switch was good in my case. I host a small server as well.
The ubuntu pocket guide is also quite good. It is slightly out of date but still offers a decent starting point: http://ubuntupocketguide.com/index_main.html
