I am guessing that Linux running Apache seems to be the most secure and reliable as many hosting companies are using it. Is this so? What would be the best recommended operating system to run web hosting off of a Dedicated server?

What kind of managing tools are there? I have used Cpanel from other companies, are there any better ones for managing web site?

Any other recommendations as to running my own web server? The server is a Compaq Proliant 3000 series...

RedHat Linux is great, and is one of the most commonly used Linux distros. WHM/CPanel is probably the most powerful piece of software for using on a server, but there are also others (such as Ensim, Plesk, Webmin, etc...).

- Matt

RedHat seems to be the standard right now as far as Linux goes but you may also want to research FreeBSD as it's a very solid OS.

Debian tbh.

redhat linux or freeBSD

Generally, Windows-based server solutions (especially IIS) are a nightmare. Your best bet would be to get something Linux based. Apache is good stuff, and is pretty much the de-facto webserver software out there.

If you check out http://www.netcraft.com/survey/ you can see Apache is way on top.

As for the underlying OS, Linux-based would be the best way to go (Red Hat, Slackware, Debian are decent). The BSD offerings aren't bad either. Check out OpenBSD or FreeBSD if you want to go that route.

Thanks for the help. I wanted to make sure I was going in the right direction.

Win2k is the Best:)

FreeBSD or another BSD if you really like a stable system.