Could someone compare and contrast the two for me? :)

I know this isnt english class, but seriously, what is the difference?

If you are wanting to build your website around Microsoft based technologies such as ASP, .NET, MSSQL etc. you are best off going with Windows. If you are just looking for general hosting go with Linux. If you do a search on the forums you will find more detailed information explaining the differences.

Such a big topic area I'm not surprised no one is jumping in to answer. But I'll bite and offer a simplistic answer.

- you choose Linux (or any UNIX but primarily open sourced *nixes like FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc) because
a) you are committed to the Open Source movement for one reason or another, and there are many points of view to come from
b) you don't care about Open Source but like the dirt cheap prices available for Web hosting, and will 'take what you can get' in the way of applications
c) the application you want to run is only available on the Linux /*nix platform
d) you hate Microsoft for whatever reason
e) you were told to by your boss
f) you have a spare 286 that you need to turn into a router
g) you are a security professional and know its easier to secure a *nix box than a Windows / WinNT / W2K box
h) you like Penguins
i) funds are an issue

- you choose Windows 2000 and its ilk because
a) you have always bought Windows / MS products and that's what they offer
b) you used to be a Novell NetWare guru but went through a dry spell of consulting contracts so became a MCSE and got so busy that you can't even remember shell configuration issues
c) because if faced with Windows 9x, Windows 2000 is like the messiah
d) the application you need to run is only available on that platform
f) you did not realize that *nix had as much breadth of solutions as it does.
g) You read PC Magazine religiously
h) your boss told you to, and the company you work for has 3500 Windows boxes already
i) you hate command line interfaces or you dislike learning something that isn't point and click
j) easy to use takes precedence over all other considerations including manageability, security, performance, pound for pound
k) you secretly hope that your company's new MS IIS server based website will be hacked
l) you hate penguins and most animals
m) funds are not an issue

Just a start. Too hard a question to answer without parameters. Clearly I would put a W2K box into a small self-contained workgroup of simple computer users, rather than try to run against the wind.

But I would not have any qualms about introducing a *nix based web application into a large Microsoft site if that was the right platform for the solution, all things considered.

If you are wanting to build your website around Microsoft based technologies such as ASP, .NET, MSSQL etc.

Which begs the question as to "why" would you want to build a web application around those technologies, which is the root of the matter.

And there are plenty of good reasons, most of them having to deal with "what are your other applications written in".

For example, if a site is heavily invested in ORACLE and my solution can run equally well on ORACLE or MS SQL, which would I recommend - more often than not, ORACLE. The reverse is true of course.

Interestingly, .NET, WebServices, SOAP, XML-RPC in their own and different ways start to level the playing field. If a web oriented RPC mechanism is appropriate for an integration job, then having MS centric solutions and non MS centric solutions talk to one another is not a big deal.

I'm personally not a big fan of .NET itself, as I'm not a fan of sweeping Microsoft approaches in general, even though I have to deal with them every day.

But SOAP and XML-RPC are terrific technologies that solve problems without going down the MS road fully. We have SOAP integration between one public web application running on a *nix / Apache environment to another running MS IIS at a vendor partner - and platform differences are complete hidden as far as the applications are concerned.

Some links

http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2001/1018.tco.html
http://www.jimmo.com/Linux-NT_Debate/

woops