PostgreSQL OS suggestion

Question

Hi guys we are on the way to start developing a big web platform. For db server we choosen postgresql. Would you suggest an OS for the postgresql server (we are looking for the maximum performance)? Thanks

P.S. sorry for the bad english

Answer 1

I would suggest *nix based, Linux would be great if it is possible because you can get the package easier with the built-in package manager (e.g apt for debian, yum for fedora, etc). Because Postgres is originally made for *nix based OS. The port to windows is only recently and as you can see on several threads here on Stackoverflow, Postgres does not perform as good on Windows as it is on *nix based OS.

Answer 2

I would suggest a platform that you feel comfortable with. As Jeff suggested, it is usually easier to throw faster hardware at a problem than human time.

This reasoning is based on theses main ideas :

1. Usually the database is only marginally faster given different OS.
2. The high order optimisations are usually in tuning the database or the requests. Not really in switching OS.
3. If you have more knowledge on a OS, you can take usually more juice out from it. Whereas if you take an OS that you are not really familiar with, but that is supposed to be faster, it might kick your back in unexpected ways.

That said, as answered before an *NIX-based OS would be better right now, since PostgreSQL has still deep roots in a *NIX world. But this is becoming less and less an issue with the 8.x line.