Hi,

SETI@home can be run on XP and IE7 as I am doing now. But, would there be any advantages in running this project on Linux? Specifically, would Linux be faster? I'm trying to decide whether Linux is worth learning and trying.

Thanks,

Bob

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Hi,

SETI@home can be run on XP and IE7 as I am doing now. But, would there be any advantages in running this project on Linux? Specifically, would Linux be faster? I'm trying to decide whether Linux is worth learning and trying.

Thanks,

Bob

It's worth learning, trying and using regardless of SETI@home or BOINC. ;)

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/Mav

We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean.
We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.
(Carl Sagan)

I've recently started playing with linux. I've used LiveCD's on my windows macnines, and did a hard drive install on a machine which had no windows license.

I've found that the benchmark program boinc uses doesn't work well with linux machines, in fact for all mine and some I've heard of; the boinc benchmark is about 55% of the windows benchmark in the same machine. That said, for ABCathome, Einstein, Rosetta, SetiBeta, and Seti which use something other than the benchmark for granting credit, it matters not. However, for all the others that I know of it results in smaller "claimed" and therefor lower "granted credit" for the same work.

So, If you stick with any of the above projects it won't matter. NOTE: ABCathomes' Linux application is better optimized than it's windows counterpart, so you get more credit/hour using linux than windows.

I've not detected a speed increase using windows vs linux on other projects, but Like I said, I just started using linux and have yet to run samples on those other projects.

there is a cash bonus of not paying MS when you build new ones. LOL

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I prefer linux for a lot of things I do. The commandline is extremely powerful and once you have learned some of the tricks you can do things a lot faster with a few commands than by clicking around with a mouse. I still have one windows machine that I keep around for gaming and a few other things.

The other great thing is that there are almost no viruses or spyware for Linux so you don't have to worry as much about those things stealing CPU cycles from boinc :)

If you are really interested in trying it out, I would suggest downloading a liveCD that you can boot off of and try Linux without installing it on your hard drive. When you are done, you just take the CD out of the drive and reboot back into windows. Ubuntu is probably one of the best ones for a new user to try. It comes with most of the basic programs you need already installed. Fedora Core is another one that should be fairly simple although I haven't used it myself. I also use Gentoo which is very customizable and powerful but is not simple to set up.

Good luck!

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A member of The Knights Who Say NI!
For rankings, history graphs and more, check out:
My BOINC stats site

I prefer linux for a lot of things I do. The commandline is extremely powerful and once you have learned some of the tricks you can do things a lot faster with a few commands than by clicking around with a mouse. I still have one windows machine that I keep around for gaming and a few other things.

The other great thing is that there are almost no viruses or spyware for Linux so you don't have to worry as much about those things stealing CPU cycles from boinc :)

If you are really interested in trying it out, I would suggest downloading a liveCD that you can boot off of and try Linux without installing it on your hard drive. When you are done, you just take the CD out of the drive and reboot back into windows. Ubuntu is probably one of the best ones for a new user to try. It comes with most of the basic programs you need already installed. Fedora Core is another one that should be fairly simple although I haven't used it myself. I also use Gentoo which is very customizable and powerful but is not simple to set up.

Good luck!

I found Suse 10 to be very easy to use. I also use Knoppix (liveCD) it is very easy to use and learn...and the best part is you can just eject and reboot back to whatever OS you were using!

-citroja

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I also use Gentoo which is very customizable and powerful but is not simple to set up.

Good luck!

There's always SabayonLinux
It's an installable live dvd Gentoo distribution.

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Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

Another LiveCD, Slax can be installed on Mini-CD or USB-stick.
Available in all languages.

Well, since everyones whipping out the links, I'll whip one or two out as well.

You can follow the madness as I installed it to the hard drive for the first time. If you search for one of my last posts, you'll see a step by step install of "Mandriva One" and how to get boinc working.