I know that one uses should come down to what one is most comfortable with.
…
BUT,
What are the pro’s and con’s of using win xp with xampp 1.7 and/or linux.
I have been playing with both. I built me a linux box with ubuntu 8.10 and installed xampp 1.7 on another system.
Both seem to be working equally well.
Differences that I have seen so far deal mostly with backups, and both win xp and linux seem to have pros and cons with that.
on the linux box, one can use the built in backup feature which is not usable on a win platform. However, on a win platform, one can use automated backup programs, such as Cobian or acronis true image to do complete, differential, and incremental backups. (that can be done on a linux box, but not so easily.
What other differences have people seen and what are other pro’s con’s. I feel that I could use either. Previously, I had never played with linux, but it set up easily and has seemed to work quite well.
I have a new, small practice, but it is growing and one day will be much larger. Is one setup better than the other, in the long run, or when there is a greater amount of data in the database?
Great question, but certainly subject to the bias of whoever answers it. Mine is XP, but I am not a Linux guy ;-). The Linux guys all think I live on the dark side, while acknowledging we need Windows people. So… we coexist.
My bent was for a stand-alone system, rather than a web-server based. I think Windows is best for the latter, but Linux seems to have the market equally cornered on the web server side.
Where it breaks down is the issue of virtual machinery. In all such cases, you sacrifice speed.
So my preference is for the automated backups to drives I OWN on my own LAN, which I think is best served in Windows. I’ll leave the Linux argument to others. Hope that helps.
In either case, the BIG advantage to OpenEMR is that I can make it do what I want.
My background is in both windows in linux. This program’s still very linux centric. We have recently just made the windows installation much easier, so as more windows users it and begin helping with development I predict that will change.
You will find that linux can do anything you want for free given enough time. You can create automated incremental, differential, full backup scripts (rsync and dar are two nice programs), and mysql backup scripts that send your information to anywhere you want. With linux, your also more mobile, meaning easier when you need to scale up from a small server to a larger server (the backup/restore script that’s in OpenEMR now works great for this).
I think the best argument to choose windows is if that is what you were most comfortable with (back to your first sentence). But if your already comfortable with linux, then you’ve already won the battle.
Thanks both for the feedback. I will continue playing with it on both systems. I will more than likely stick with my linux server. (especially since the resident windows fan/expert pointed out the speed issue. What is it our/my ‘need for speed’) However, I will play with both. I have some friends that I will probably be helping on the windows, come summertime.
Linux does make, imho, portability easier. It is nice to be able to log in from various sites and still have everything backup up locally in my office.
For now, although I am feeling comfortable with linux, I am still a neophyte and have much to learn. I have mods that I want to make, specific for chiropractors (which I am) but I am still getting my feet wet.
Back to playing/testing.
I have a feeling that openEmr is going to become a bad habit for me, as I become more familiar with its internal structure and functioning.