Hi,

Windows is not a OS, it is a desktop/multimedia OS.
If you want good 64 bit support you _Must_ install some distro of Linux.
This by itself makes your machine expand way beyond any Windows would allow.
For web hosting, unless you run asp sites there is not even an arguable choice about this.

What usually is discussed is the best distribution.
And that depends on your particular purposes.
For very secure systems I would go for either FereBSD or OpenBSD (not Linux), for web Hosting it really depends on your expertise ...
SuSE would be better if you have no experience. Debian would be good if you have a lot of experience under Linux.
I have several Linux OS's installed and never had a problem for many many years.


Regards,
Pedro