Which OS do you like for torrents?

**GregB** · 03-04-2010, 09:08 AM

Depending on the application, I use primarily 2 different OS'.

For rtorrent and rutorrent, Centos.

For utorrent, I use ubuntu with wine.

I know a lot of people have issues with Centos, due to memory spikes and such.

If you are going to setup a shared rtorrent install, Centos works very nicely.

This of course depends on your knowledge of the operating system.
To get Centos to work nicely with multiple or single instances of rtorrent and/or other services, you need to really optimize the kernel.

Memory optimizations done through sysctl can really benefit you there.

For shared servers, you really need to have a strong connection.

rtorrent sort of fails when it comes to multiple users, but if you research, you can make Centos run with such a low load, it will boggle your mind.

For example, I have a server up housing 6 users. Each has about 10 different torrents running right now, on a 100mb/s connection.

The load is: 2.01

during hash checks, the loads spike to 6

Now, on a poorly configured Centos box, 6 can be horrible, shutting down all other services, or making them virtually useless.

But on my boxes, they can(and have) handled a load of 100+ without disruption to many services(of course ssh runs with higher priority than anything else, to prevent the problem of me not being able to get in), but still.

I'd like to know your opinion as well.

Thanks.

**pinn** · 03-04-2010, 04:10 PM

For home - Windows.
For seedbox - some Linux distant.

**anon** · 03-04-2010, 04:15 PM

Home: Windows XP
Seedbox: don't have one.

**Cabalo** · 03-04-2010, 05:03 PM

Originally Posted by GregB

Depending on the application, I use primarily 2 different OS'.

For rtorrent and rutorrent, Centos.

For utorrent, I use ubuntu with wine.

I know a lot of people have issues with Centos, due to memory spikes and such.

If you are going to setup a shared rtorrent install, Centos works very nicely.

This of course depends on your knowledge of the operating system.
To get Centos to work nicely with multiple or single instances of rtorrent and/or other services, you need to really optimize the kernel.

Memory optimizations done through sysctl can really benefit you there.

For shared servers, you really need to have a strong connection.

rtorrent sort of fails when it comes to multiple users, but if you research, you can make Centos run with such a low load, it will boggle your mind.

For example, I have a server up housing 6 users. Each has about 10 different torrents running right now, on a 100mb/s connection.

The load is: 2.01

during hash checks, the loads spike to 6

Now, on a poorly configured Centos box, 6 can be horrible, shutting down all other services, or making them virtually useless.

But on my boxes, they can(and have) handled a load of 100+ without disruption to many services(of course ssh runs with higher priority than anything else, to prevent the problem of me not being able to get in), but still.

I'd like to know your opinion as well.

Thanks.

Which optimizations do you make at kernel level?
Usually I go for debian when I use servers, though I've tried CentOS, but haven't gone much in depth.

**MarioXXL** · 03-04-2010, 05:10 PM

Only Win XP Prof. for me!

**j6796713** · 03-04-2010, 07:05 PM

depands, sometimes windows xp other times lunux, fedora distro. they both work fine for me but in the end it all depands on the needs and whats available.