Hello,
Disclaimer : I'm a newbie to webhosting. I've been using win2k /iis/exchange on a T1 for a single company for several years but that doesn't really count for much. I've only used Linux for databases and OpenBSD for serving secure ftp and irc and a little apache. I'm looking to learn more about control panels and providing services to a broad user base.

What advantages does a cobalt raq offer over say a standard pc with Windows 2k or a Unix Variant? How often are they exploited / need patches etc.? Does anyone have an approximate idea of the workload they run on their perticular system? For instance, a 733mhz 512 2x 60gig Raq supporting 2500 hits a day, across 200 websites and a thousand email accounts?

I'm really just looking for an affordable, stable, not-to-complex way to host web & mail.

What issues do you run into as far as certain technologies are concerned, cold fusion, asp, .net etc. when you use these. I would think it would be a major downside that you can't support windows and unix specific technologies, am I missing something?

How do Cobalts comapre to the regular sun boxes, say a 220R for instance?

I think I'll cut my list there before I get too carried away.

Any intelligent replies are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.