First, let me state that I'm not a big fan of Linux. Though we've run Linux for mail and web in the past, currently, we only use it for routing. We've done some development work on Linux. Nevertheless, I much prefer developing for and hosting on Windows based servers.
All that said, I've found that installing and hosting ColdFusion MX on Windows, especially Windows Server 2003, has been an ordeal. We haven't hosted it on any flavors of Linux, so I can't compare. However, it's my impression that ColdFusion MX, with its J2EE platform, is much more Unix friendly than it is Windows friendly. Just as a point of reference. I just spent the better part of 2 days trying to install ColdFusion MX 6.1 on Windows Server 2003 for a customer. The problem (though not the solution) seems to be documented in the following tech note article: http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_19371 Unfortunately, once I installed ColdFusion with the stand alone Web server, I still couldn't run the connector scripts. At some point on day 2 of the ordeal, I came across the following blog post: http://www.bpurcell.org/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=949 Sure enough, that worked. Now, why that information hasn't found its way into the Macromedia Knowledgebase, I don't know. In general, I'd say that this one experience is fairly representative of our experiences with ColdFusion MX. There's a good deal of voodoo involved in getting ColdFusion on a Windows Server 2003 machine. The connectors in particular, seem to be particularly troublesome. Though I see a good deal of this kind of thing in news groups, I don't hear many complaints from the folks running ColdFusion MX on Apache/Linux. Of course, since I'm not troubleshooting ColdFusion MX on Apache/Linux, it may just be that I haven't noticed such issues. I also believe that, if you have experience administering Unix boxes, you'll be better prepared to troubleshoot ColdFusion MX issues. Everything from directory structure to command line switches to log file formats betrays a Unix bias. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that's a bad thing. But I think ColdFusion MX is much more at home on a Unix machine. However, I also think you need a good deal of Java/JVM/J2EE experience to troubleshoot ColdFusion MX problems. This is something I lacked when we initially upgraded to ColdFusion MX. It proved to be a pretty steep learning curve. I'm still not entirely confident weeding my way through JVM hot spot dump files or even the maze of JRun xml configuration files. The switch to a Java platform also greatly impacted several things like COM interop and ODBC support. So, some of the advantages to running ColdFusion MX on the Windows platform have been mitigated. In exchange, we get better Java interop and some other beneficial side effects like a much better mail engine. So, it's a trade off. Nevertheless, my overall bias towards Windows Server 2003 overrides these issues. I'm also encouraged by the overall progress made between versions 6.0 and 6.1. I haven't had a chance to install and evaluate ColdFusion MX 7 so I don't know if they've made a similar leap forward. So, if you're already leaning towards Linux and in general, more familiar with that environment, I'd say it's probably a wise decision. That said, I wouldn't make the decision based on price. The cost of Windows Server 2003 is pretty insignificant by most measures. Ben Rogers http://www.c4.net v.508.240.0051 f.508.240.0057 > -----Original Message----- > From: Britta Bennett [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 2:03 PM > To: CF-Server > Subject: Linux vs Windows for CF Server? > > My small company needs to start running its own CF server, and I'm trying > to figure out: > > Is there is ANY reason to go with the costly windows platform rather than > just run the CF server on Linux... Any advice re *stability, performance, > other considerations* re Linux VS Windows for running CF? > > Any advice would be greatly apprciated.. > Thanks very much! > > Sincerely, > Britta Bennett > West Coast Web > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:10:5301 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/10 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:10 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.10 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
