Mapserver on Linux vs Windows

[Ed McNierney]

Sture -

There is no reason to think that running MapServer on Linux or Windows - given comparable hardware - will produce different results.  I have run MapServer for several years on both platforms, and I have no reason to think one is any better or worse than the other.  You do need to think very carefully about the hardware platform you're using, if it's not the same machine.  Differences in the disk subsystem and data storage design, as well as in the amount of available RAM, can make very substantial differences in MapServer performance.

	- Ed

Ed McNierney
President and Chief Mapmaker
TopoZone.com / Maps a la carte, Inc.
73 Princeton Street, Suite 305
North Chelmsford, MA  01863
Phone: +1 (978) 251-4242
Fax: +1 (978) 251-1396
ed at topozone.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU] On Behalf Of Sture Dingsøyr
Sent: Friday, March 03, 2006 4:40 PM
To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU
Subject: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] Mapserver on Linux vs Windows

Hi there

We have a server running Mapserver on Linux (Red Hat 8). Is is used to generate maps, mainly from shapefiles. But also some layers from Postgis/WMS. To do this we use PHP and MapScrip...

We are now considering the possibility to port our solution from Linux to Windows, mainly du to the fact that maintaining new versions of Mapserver on Windows are quite easy with the pre-built binary package that exists for Windows (no compiling is needed).

Does anybody have any experience on how a Mapserver solution works on Windows compared to Linux. I am mainly thinking about speed and performance? 

Does Mapserver work faster on Linux? 

Regards Sture