[Moin-user] Moin Security and Performance issues based on host operating system

[Thomas Waldmann]

> Are there any security issues to be considered in order to decide
> which operating system is more reliable to host a Moin instance or
> farm?

Well, I think you should prefer a well-maintained linux system (e.g. 
debian or ubuntu) over a windows box.

Most of moin's code is the same for linux (posix) systems and win32 
systems, but we have a bit of platform dependant code (mostly because of 
stuff being broken or insane on win32).

Some stuff (like e.g. xapian) might be troublesome on win32.

Sometimes there are strange effects on win32 (see those bug reports 
about removal of a directory failing first and then mysterically 
succeeding some milliseconds later).

Also, I think moin on linux is better tested and more used than on 
windows (speaking of server setups, not personal wikis).

> Are there any performance issues to be considered in order to decide
> which operating system is more reliable to host a Moin instance or
> farm?

You need a good filesystem. So if it must be Windows, don't use FAT.

On Linux (Posix) some stuff can be done faster, e.g. due to posix 
semantics of a rename operation - on windows we have to emulate that 
using slower locking.

> My humble experience, with no tests whatsoever, just personal
> perception, is that Moin on Linux (standard Ubuntu default server)
> runs smoothly, but I'd like to know your opinions and experiences,
> please.

I didn't do comparisons and benchmarks of linux vs. win32 as a moin 
server. For me, using a Windows server for moin is out of question 
anyway. :)

What you didn't ask for is setup and maintenance. Setting up Python, 
Moin, python-libs and other support tools is often more work on Windows 
and sometimes you maybe have trouble getting pre-compiled stuff for some 
library. If you run into this, you would have to setup a C development 
environment yourself (that's easy and standard for linux, but 
non-standard and maybe a pain to do on windows).