Sorry
I know this might ruffle some feathers, but am interested in learning about this.
I have been using Plex for years and been off and on this board for about 2 years.
It seems, per. capita, that IOS and Linux users have FAR more problems and issues than Windows users.
(This assumes that there are as many Windows users as other OS users)
Now I am not a Windows ■■■■, like there can be for other OSes, but for nearly 4 years my PMS has run mostly flawlessly all that time.
I do not know what other conclusion to arrive at except if you want a solid, robust, performing PMS use Windows.
@jjrjr1 said:
It seems, per. capita, that IOS and Linux users have FAR more problems and issues than Windows users.
What logic did you create to come up with that?
@jjrjr1 said:
LOL
Just look at this forum LOL
Pure numbers…
Tell me what implementation you perceive as the one with the most issues??? (or least issues)
cause the windows forum has ~850 pages of posts, the OSX ~400 and the linux less than 300 - clearly windows has less issues?
I feel like we’ve concluded this several times before:
The best OS to run PMS on is the OS you are most capable of administering yourself. For many (according to market share, about 90% of the desktop space…far less if you look at servers/appliances) that’s going to be Windows…that’s just how the math works.
Things your numbers don’t account for is post count versus problem count…how many posts in the Linux forums are people asking for an official apt repo, or a tarball for ____architecture, etc. Same for windows.
Also, a HUGE portion of issues are related to the OS itself, not PMS…so how that impacts you depends on how you have your update services configured (Windows update rebooting can totally wreck your movie night), what else do you do on that server (is it a dedicated box/appliance, or do you also play games on it or use it as a daily driver, etc.)
TL;DR - this is a pretty loaded question and any attempt to find a single answer is a fool’s errand as it doesn’t account for the far-from-standard landscape of hardware, usage environments, and user skillsets.
I am not sure that problems/OS are really unbalanced in favor of any OS but rather it is directly related, regardless of OS, to number of tasks being run on the server and the number of users on a server pushing the limits of processing speed.
I have tested Plex on Windows and Linux but I have settled on Windows but not because I feel it is superior but because I speak “Windows” a bit better than I speak “Linux” and I like DrivePool quite a bit and there is not a version of DrivePool for Linux.
I also do not have my server doing much besides running Plex and what other programs are needed to support Plex and, because of that, I have almost no problems.
Plex seems quite stable and reliable running on most OSs as long as the processor is not too stressed and as long as there are few conflicts.
So it is my belief that people should run Plex on the OS they are most comfortable with and they will have few problems as long as they minimize other programs and keep the processor usage to 75% or less.
@jjrjr1 said:
Again.
The question is really Per Capita…
So which OS do you think has the least issues??
Oh… and you are forgetting all the NAS implementations that are Linux based…
per capita of what? Cuba? Fiji? It can’t be per capita of each version as you have zero idea as to what those populations are.
The NAS forums barely raise the linux total past the OSX one, and given they are mostly all seperate builds they are not really apples to apples anyway. Counts are meaningless without context.
I ran OSX since PMS was first released, swapped over to linux 5 years ago - never had a serious issue ever, only swapped as I wanted a truely headless solution. I’ve run many IOS clients since the day it was released, periodic issues, but never as bad as anyone I know trying to run something on *driod.
If you know how to manage the OS you are running on, you’ll have very few if any issues that are OS specific.
I run PMS on both Windows and OpenMediaVault (Debian) and have no issues with both. I do feel more comfortable with Windows but am proficient enough with Linux to manage Plex there. There is no best OS, it depends on the admin.
All good feedback
Thanks…
Any other thoughts would be appreciated.
I started this hopefully to help newbies.
I am sure all and any info on this topic is appreciated.
Can we conclude The Best OS for Plex? In short: No!
Thread count is an extremely poor metric.
How many of the posts are issues? For example, I just recently posted in a thread the FreeBSD forum that was discussing aspects of a traditional raid appliance vs ZFS.
How many issues are specific to that OS? For example, I’ve seen numerous posts in an OS specific forums that were no means specific to that OS but general.
What about a different metric that might be more representative? For example, if I used a metric of what OS the developers used (among those who’s development work is not ties to a specific OS), the conclusion would be different.
Lastly, I’ve rarely encountered an issues that’s specific to a certain OS and this is due to the fact that a vast majority of the code in the server is not tied to any particular OS. In fact, when it comes to OS specific code, Windows stands out as it is the most dissimilar to the others and the most requiring code that’s not shared with other OSs.
I am very fluent in Linux, but my PMS is, and always has been, on Windows. Early on, silverlight and flash channels had issues when installed on a Linux-based PMS. Thus, it was preferable to run under Windows. I run my environment in a VM and assign 2vCPUs and 3GB ram, Windows 10 x64 and host it on an SSD-based NAS. I have not had any issues with it related to the OS, only PMS software issues. YMMV.
On one hand, you have exponentially more people who use Windows because of the low bar of entry, so that will skew the percentage of people complaining on this forum about problems while on Windows (no one goes to a forum to just praise).
On the other hand, I work in IT and with with thousands of computers in a mix of Windows editions, OS X, Linux and even FreeBSD. My experience with Windows goes back to Windows 1.0 (although it wasn’t until Windows 2.0 that it was getting used with much regularity) and my OS experience goes back before Windows was a twinkle in Bill’s eye. From that non-anecdotal experience, I have learned that most other OSes get stability nailed a lot better than Windows could ever dream.
That said, the bar to entry for things like Linux and FreeBSD is higher, especially if you have to drop to the command line (usually necessary, even for a little). Yet my techno-luddite mother and many other clueless people I know have received Linux computers courtesy of folks like me and have no problem using them as their daily driver, so take that for what you will. I would think, however, that the sort of person who needs/wants to set up a Plex server probably comes into the game with more technological skill than my mom already and can easily handle a situation that involves a little non-GUI admin work on a non-Microsoft/Apple OS. But maybe I’m dreaming.
My Plex server runs on FreeNAS which is a GUI appliance that runs on FreeBSD. My experience with FreeBSD goes way back to before people heard “Linux” any more than they heard “FreeBSD”. After seeing how rock-solid stable it was and how it was used by companies such as Hotmail, Pixar, Netflix, Yahoo, Apple, Apache, Juniper, Cisco, Citrix, Isilon, McAfee, Sophos, Verisign and even WhatsApp… I figured it was good enough for my servers too.
I prefer to run Plex on either a NAS or on Windows Server. Why? The NAS is dead simple stupid to set up and is extremely stable and reliable. I rarely have to do anything to it other than the occasional firmware update. Windows Server is obviously more of a pain to set up, but it is rock solid stable and almost never goes down.
I HATE running it is on a Windows desktop machine, because it is FAR less reliable. I realize that there are configuration settings that can mitigate issues with updates and reboots, but they do not entirely solve them. Running Plex on a desktop machine meant spending a lot more time playing tech support for my family. If I ever need more horsepower than my NAS provides, I will move Plex onto a machine running Windows Server. This is probably only a good option if you have MSDN licenses kicking around.
I’ve run Plex on Windows, NAS(unRAID), Linux, and Docker (essentially Linux). Running it in Docker has made maintenance of it essentially non-existent. I can’t stress enough how easy it is to maintain Dockers.
@sremick
I am an old timer in IT as well.
Before there was Windows there was MS-DOS and before that there was CP/M (Kildall could have been king if he hadn’t screwed up with IBM LOL)
DO you remember SCO Unix or Berkley BSD Unix in the 70’s…?? (Lonng before Linux) LOL Or how about Gem from Digital Research??
Cut my teeth on all of them. Did Application Development and Systems Programming as well on those and other platforms.
I really feel that, apples to apples, (No Pun Intended) Windows is generally the way to go for MANY reasons.
However Linux is much more efficient and stable in the hands of an experienced administrator.
But most folks are not that…
A note aside, I also remember Windows 1.0. in fact was a VAR for Microsoft during it’s development. Even sold a copy to a mutil PC installation in a bank. It was a train wreck. Had to replace Windows with CA Executive, from Computer Associates.
Windows did not come of it’s own till Win 3 in my experience and opinion.
