I am currently preparing to host my own web site and am unsure of which OS to run on the web server. I am deciding over Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows XP Professional. I will be running Apache on it. Is windows even the way to go or should I try Linux, even though I am not familiar with it? I am unsure and any help would be greatly appreciated. -Fredrick

Why not use an old PC? for DOS there is www.eznos.org or Windows http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/sswww.htm

Running Apache on Windows is fine but Linux is more secure and needs less computer resources to run. Since you're not familiar with Linux, I'd recommend using Windows for now and migrate it to Linux once you get comfortable with it. If you use XP PRO, you'll be limited to only 10 concurrent connections (that's the limit built into XP not apache) so, instead use Windows 2000-Advanced Server to avoid that limitation.

How much is Windows Server? Regular starts at $1,000 USD. Advanced starts at about $4000 USD. It is not hard to run a linux box with something like RedHat. You can download the ISO and all software for free. Or order the CD's online at a linux retailer. Yes, you will have to learn something with Linux. There are thousands of tutorials, many of them geared for Redhat, to help you. Just disable all incoming ports you do not need, patch your server, and keep firewall logs(there are tutorials for more security info as well). With Linux you will also need far less powerful of a machine to run a webserver. A processor with features at least equal to a PII and plenty of RAM (around 128MB) is fine (for low-volume performance).

>> How much is Windows Server? Regular starts at $1,000. anonproxy, if you paid anything close to that as the base price, you got RIPPED OFF. I paid about $500 for my W2K server which included 5 client licenses. However, the price can jump up pretty fast if you need to buy lots of client licenses. I haven't priced Adv Svr but, I'm sure the base price is much lower than $4,000.