The is no best OS. There is OS for one or the other purpose. See web sites for Windows Server and Linux. They have all the features. Also some OS are free and not free. )
My opinion would be that apache/linux makes the best web server by far but windows is the best OS if you have a desktop PC. Reason why I say this is in my experience linux makes a very slow desktop PC but as a web server its most reliable.
I like linux for a server cause it has the option of no GUI (which takes lots of resources). And I like windows for surfing the net and checking my email (good for simple things).
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.
IIS is a very good webserver and MSSQL stands its match as a db server. Lamp is very popular amongst low budget and starters, but that doesn't mean that Windows is ########.
If you are serious about hosting, you should offer Windows et al. Otherwise you will loose a lot of customer potential, especially the customers with a wallet that just want an integrated solution.
So, I really connect with the *nix cli, but that doesn't mean our customers have to.
######## actually is s h i t , and is automagically removed ;-)
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Last edited by SuperRacks; 05-20-2007 at 10:53 PM.