Crypto 2 - Choosing the Operating System

Installment 2 of my cryptocurrency experiment. 

For me the first step in creating a crypto mining rig was deciding on an operating system. This will factor into the hardware choices as it must be compatible with the software. 

I see the options as: Windows, Linux, OS X and Unix 

For me the only real possibilities are Windows and Linux. As I want to build my own hardware, OS X isn't really an option and Linux is more versatile (for my purposes) than Unix is and I have more experience with Linux. In reality I am interested in using Linux as I have used it in the past and have enjoyed it. So I was really looking for confirmation that I won't take too much of a performance hit but using Linux as opposed to Windows. 

I did the 'ol web search and read a few conversations on the topic of OS's and mining. I didn't spend a whole lot of time searching but I did find one blog post where lifipp wrote up their impressions in a more organized way than what often happens on a chat thread. You too can read this gem here.  

From my quick and dirty research I determined there isn't too much of a performance difference between the Windows and Linux versions. I suspect I might run into some more challenges with configuration with Linux and it will probably take a little longer. But, again, I am looking for that challenge so for me it isn't a cost. 

There appear to be Linux distributions dedicated to mining (some are listed  here). But I am interested in experimenting with running some other applications (such as a software defined radio) on the motherboard while mining. Supposedly the CPU doesn't have to work too hard to keep up with the GPUs so I'm going to see how much of a performance hit I may take by running something else. At this point I suspect the primary problem will be system instability from running other applications. 

Based on my previous experience I will go with the most recent Ubuntu Long Term Support (LTS) version of Linux which at this point is 16.04.3. We'll see if I am up for the challenge.