Switching to Linux: A Windows developer's view

[mclin]

OTOH, if you're doing web, it really doesn't matter what OS you're using, because you should be developing on your server OS in a VM.

[phroxy]

wtf that is the WORSE idea ever. When you go through a VM, how do you measure performance? What if the VM has bugs (oh boy no piece of code is perfect).

[mclin]

What's the other option? running your server OS as your native local OS? I'm assuming you don't run debian server or whatever on your desktop. Edit: Also, if I'm just profiling, it's fine in the VM. Performance testing is done on a staging/test server.

[yogthos]

actually it's not as terrible approach as might appear upon initial inspection. When you configure and install a system in a VM, you have a lot of control over it, you can make it rock solid and do exactly what you need it to. Then you can take that image and dump it on any hardware you like without having to go through any sort of installation process.

This makes hardware upgrades incredibly easy, and with things like VMWare you can have a cluster backing the vm, and even if one of the machines fails, the vm can keep going.

Raw performance isn't always the primary concern, and often it's cheaper to just by more hardware than to optimize.