Which OS best for file serving? Does file AIO increase performance significantly?

[Andy]

Hi,

I'm interested in setting up Nginx server for image serving, mostly
small images such as icons or thumbnails.

Usually I use Linux, but I understand that file AIO doesn't work on
Linux. A few questions:

1) How much performance increase does file AIO realistically provide for
file serving - 10%? 50%? 100%?

2) If the performance increase is significant, which OS do you recommend
for file AIO - FreeBSD, NetBSD, Open BSD, OpenSolaris?

3) Is it a steep learning curve moving from Linux to one of the
aforementioned OS?

Thanks.

Posted at Nginx Forum: http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,214148,214148#msg-214148