By Ashish Rajendra Kumar Sai

In our previous blog, which you can read here, we looked at the hardware elements of our mining rig and now we will take a closer look at the software segment. 

Similar to the standard personal computer, we will need an Operating System for our rig, but there are many flavours of operating systems to pick from.

If you are comfortable with Linux, you can use any Linux distribution that supports an ethereum miner (more on this in next week’s blog) or if you like Windows better, you can use any Windows OS on your rig.

To make the decision a little easier, here are some of our top picks with the pros and cons for each.  

Linux OS for Mining:

  •     ethOS – ethOS has been around for a while now and empowers over 106,668 mining rigs. The OS is based on Linux and is freely available to download and use. 

            Pro – It is free and optimised for mining ethereum. 

            Con – This is based on Linux and requires some experience with Linux operating systems. 

  •    PiMP OS – First introduced in 2012, PiMP OS has evolved a lot and now supports many cryptocurrencies and mining algorithms. 

             Pros – This supports mining with AMD and Nvidia cards in the same rig and works with many cryptocurrencies. 

             Cons – As is the case with ethOS, PiMP OS is also based on Linux and requires some knowledge of Linux environment. PiMP OS also requires a license.

  •     Hive OS – Hive OS is designed for maintaining a mining farm, if you have more than one rig, Hive OS can provide a management console to manage all of the rigs.

             Pro – It is easy to use over a few mining rigs. 

             Con – There is a subscription based pricing model.

  •     SimpleMining OS – Another Linux based OS that has been optimised for mining cryptocurrencies, it can mine a number of cryptocurrencies and supports most GPUs including Nvidia and AMD.

               Pros – There is a meagre monthly subscription fee and it can mine many cryptocurrencies 

              Con – This requires some knowledge of Linux environment.

Windows OS for Mining:

If you like Windows better than Linux operating systems you can use any Windows OS to mine on your rig with some additional software. Windows support almost all cryptocurrency minings. 

   Pros – They are easy to use and can mine almost any cryptocurrency.

   Cons – They have an expensive license and are not easily customisable.

In next weeks blog, we will take a look at the mining application and what mining pools are.