----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
If your running 1 server, windows XP would be the way to go, if your running more than one, Windows 2003 would be the way to go because it's kernel is built for running multiple services with the threading, it can handle it much better than XP because the kernel is optimized for that kind of use where as XP Pro is more for Graphics and code compiling.
Although its has been tweeked, they where both designed from the ground up to deal with multiple services with threading. XP was not altered to give better GFX I'm afraid thats just rubbish. It has good driver support yes, but as servers dont run GFX that doesnt even come into the equation.
Keep in mind, while they did start out from the windows 2000 codebase, they diverged when Windows XP was released in order to make the Windows 2003 platform more stable and Enterprise ready to compete against Unix which it is actually doing very well from the benchmarks posted around the net.
Its more like 2k -> XP -> 2k3 not: 2k -> XP 2k -> 2k3
Also, while the forground and background has been around, it's the Kernel that determines the Optimization, unfortunately, you can't rebuild your kernel in windows like you can for *bsd/linux which means, your limited to the features the kernel your running can support.
Since when have you had to recompile a kernel to set process priority? The option is even there in the gui just like in 2k3 ( although it has finer grained support ). The only reason for the setting in the first place was to prevent admins running applications / utilities on the glass from degrading service performance. For game server machine you dont run anything else hence there is no contention hence there is no real need for the setting.
If you do a Diff of the kernel files, you will see that the 2003 Standard Versions are bigger than XP Pro versions.
Yes 2k3 is newer it has more features but none that help it be a significantly better game server platform ( or none that anyones come up with yet ).
The reasons are fairly obvious. It comes down to preference, costs and how much robustness you want in your system. I know why I use windows 2003 instead of Windows XP for a MS SQL server, it's fairly obvious. YOu can use it or not, thats your perogative, but they are not the same by far.
SQL server is not really the same; it needs huge memory support, more CPU power read > 2 CPU's etc so will definitely benefit from Server. None of these factors affect a simple game server. If you think they do your kidding yourself I'm afraid.
When it all boils down to it people, game servers as stated by a number of folks now are simple. They primarily single threaded apps, they don't use huge amounts of ram. They just require good network / disk IO and a clean scheduler. XP has all of these! Granted so does 2k3 but your key differences in UMA, advanced fibre's, optimised services, large memory support, 2 > CPU support in 2k3 over XP you game server just doesn't use.
If it doesn't use them it cant benefit from them. I think we all acknowledge that 2k3 is newer and will have some optimisation under the hood which MAY slightly benefit all processes but conversely it also has extra security checks etc so of those benefits what your are likely to see is next to nothing I would hypothesize.
Again if someone can come up with a real feature that 2k3 has which will enable it to run GAME servers better, great but the question is does that extra performance justify the extra cost?
Steve / K
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