# Which OS is best to Deploy to?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-os-is-best-to-deploy-to/104095>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 14, 2007, 9:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-os-is-best-to-deploy-to/104095 "2007-05-14T09:46:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Myron\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/f17d59/32.png) [@Myron\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Myron_M)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 9:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-os-is-best-to-deploy-to/104095/1 "2007-05-14T09:46:17Z")

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My Rails app is almost finished, and it’s time to deploy. This is an  
area where I’m completely clueless. In the past, I’ve always  
developed .NET windows desktop apps. I know next to nothing about web  
servers, apache non-Windows operating systems. (Yeah, it’s pathetic, I  
know). To add to the complication, the website I built is for a  
college in China (I’m a part-time Oral English teacher, and the rest  
of the time I’m spending building them a website). They are currently  
using a windows server with IIS for the main website (my web app is  
just for the department of foreign affairs). They’ve offered to get a  
new computer setup for this, but I’m not really sure what the ideal  
setup is.

Can someone help me out? Bear in mind that this is never going to be  
a high volume website.

- What OS should I use? The AWDWR book suggests Linux, FreeBSD,  
Solaris or Mac OS X. The only one I have any experience with is Mac  
OS X.
- Would a better option be to just use a web hosting service?

Thanks!  
Myron

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**Author:** ![Myron\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/f17d59/32.png) [@Myron\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Myron_M)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 12:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-os-is-best-to-deploy-to/104095/2 "2007-05-14T12:56:53Z")

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I’ve done some comparisons for my app,  
and found that Linux (Ubuntu and Debian) were way faster than Windows.

Also, the MySql bindings in C make a difference of about 40% for my  
app.

For Deployment, I’m using Pen + Mongrel\_cluster (Mongrel\_Cluster is  
always a good idea, since Rails is single-threaded out of the box).  
My tests suggest that my app can take about 50 - 100 simultaneous  
people with a decent response time (tested with Siege) with this  
config.

For the server, the most important component is the hard disk. This is  
off course logical, since most Rails apps are data-driven.  
The calculations in my app could only be sped up 10% by using an  
AMD64 3800+ (originally an Intel Centrino 1.5Ghz).  
But by using a very fast SATA HD, the app was sped up by more than  
80%.

Hope it helped you a bit,  
remember, above remarks are specific for the app I tested, it can be  
seriously different for you.

Joram

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Myron\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/f17d59/32.png) [@Myron\_M](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Myron_M)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 2:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-os-is-best-to-deploy-to/104095/3 "2007-05-14T14:38:08Z")

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my suggestion would be to install Ubuntu, or get access to a VPS that  
has some linux variant. Then have a look at the deprec gem. It will  
setup MySQL, Apache2, Rails, and as many mongrel clusters as you want  
painlessly.

[http://wiki.slicehost.com/doku.php?id=automated\_rails\_install\_and\_deployment\_with\_deprec\_capistrano](http://wiki.slicehost.com/doku.php?id=automated_rails_install_and_deployment_with_deprec_capistrano)