Ask List wrote:
We can not seem to come to an agreement on the best operating system to run spam assassin. So we have decided to post this question to the mailing list so we can have other opinions. I realize everyone will have a different opinion on the subject and some will have none at all, linux is linux and unix is unix. So I would like to hear users experiences using different operating systems. Pros/Cons/Problems/Headaches/etc. The operating systems I'm most interested in are Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Slackware, FreeBSDs, and OpenSolaris.
I've been running the postfix/amavisd-new/spamassassin/clamd/courier-thingy on loadbalanced servers with RedHat, Ubuntu and FreeBSD at work, and on Slackware for my personal server, for about 3 years now. I compile all those packages myself and never installs the packages that comes with the distribution.
I get similar performance from each of them, although the RedHat (9, not RHES or whatever it's called) server for some reason always reports that it's running under a higher load than the others under similar conditions. Over time that does not seem to matter in form of how much mail it manages to scan.
I've been very happy with the Ubuntu-setup, but that's just because I like Ubuntu, not that I can say it's better. I choosed to stay with Slackware when I set up my new personal server since I've used and liked Slackware since 1994 and know it pretty well by now. And compiling everything actually went smoothest on Slackware.
At work our new or re-installed servers in the future will all be FreeBSD, mostly because their ports-system really makes it so fast and easy to get it up and running the way we want it to, and since everybody (but me) at our company are more familiar with FreeBSD. I have not seen any better performance or stabilty on FreeBSD either.
So, do as other have said before, choose the system you like/know best, they all seem do the job equally well.
//maccall --
