Which Linux vs Windows for Web Server?

[Hajimoto]

It's hard to have a clear picture of what exactly you are doing in this endeavor,
(and perhaps it's better this way, for my sanity and for the time when the SWAT will break into your computer room) ,

Hah, you made my day (made me remember of this friend of mine that was putting on the window blinds each time he was opening his computer case)
If it helps sharpening the image, a quick explanation is that I'm not really engineering the build environment, just trying to get it working to a ... decent extent. By decent I mean something stable enough (but not more than that).

Slackware is about building your way from the ground up.

I think that's Gentoo.
Although Slackware makes it really easy to do the same, I don't think that's the main treat it's used for.

The only thing that I remember is that at one point in time, when I automatically upgraded (double facepalm) the OOLDE environment, these two libraries

• libplds4.so.0d
• libplc4.so.0d

appeared in the Oolite for Linux dependencies. Some library change that I don't know (?!?) brought these new dependencies into the picture.
I emphasize, to highlight on what is happening when you decide to go with a different library set.

Preaching to the choir here -- as I've been saying, one safe reason to stick with Slackware.

Would you say Gentoo is more suitable for building from the ground up? Also does anybody have experience with comparing Linux and Windows in terms of web server solutions. I was reading up on it here and I'm curious if anybody on this forum can throw their two cents on what they think.

Also, I think I will start using Slackware next week. Do you think it's absolutely the best choice?

[cbr]

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First encounter with linux was slackware, pushed my personal crossover from windows back a few years

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[Getafix]

@Hajimoto
I will start by saying that there is no such thing as the best (or the worst ) O/S for using as a server. It all depends on your needs.
Choosing what system will host your website is about answering a lot of questions to get a clear picture of your requirements.

What is the amount of liberty do you have for trial and error? Do you have an existing website or you are about to build a new one? Is it about a simple personal blog or a commercial site (in this case check also for your internet service fair usage policy and if your internet contract has clauses prohibiting commercial use, restricting to personal use only)? What do you want to to do with the Web server and what tools will you use? Technologies like ASP, .NET, MS Access, MS SQL Server, etc. point towards a Windows server solution, while PHP, Perl, MySQL, etc. have Linux as their natural habitat (even if you can find all that in a Windows environment too)? Are you going to maintain your O/S on your own? What is your level of expertise on administering a Linux or Windows server? Are you willing to pay for your O/S or you will go for a free solution? Is security that much important that you would consider going for a security-oriented operating system?

A stable Linux distro with long release cycle and long term support will remove much of the O/S administration clutter, leaving you with the necessary "piece" of mind to focus on your website development, maintenance and administration.