[curtiss]

I don't know anything at all about the host that you linked, but I will offer these words on the age-old question of Linux vs Windows servers.

First of all, it should be known that Windows and Linux are operating systems, not actually servers. You can actually find quite a few different "servers" on both platforms. The most popular server on Linux is apache, and the most popular server on Windows is Windows Server. However, apache can run on Windows just as well as it can run on Linux.

Now, onto the meat of the information. Both platforms can easily offer you all of the services you are seeking. The majority of web servers are running on Linux, and so it is pretty much the standard for everything out there. Many people on the web are used to the way the Linux interfaces work, and so they prefer servers running on Linux. For instance, most people that use Perl scripts are pretty accustomed to the way chmod works in order to set permissions on files, which is almost exclusively a Linux service. On Windows, you can set permissions using the NTFS file settings, but it's a whole different interface, and doesn't have quite the same effect. In addition, many of the admin panels that people are accustomed to are running on apache servers, which usually run on Linux. Finally, the path and file structure of Windows servers are very different from the file structure of Linux servers. Granted, people that have never dabbled on the web might find the Windows path structure much easier to understand than the Linux path structure. However, those that have been programming for the web for a long time will find the Windows path structure confusing when programming for the web.

Beyond all of that, the next thing to understand is how the email servers work for each platform. Generally, Windows servers will run some version of Exchange to run their mail servers. On Linux, you will actually find quite a few different mail servers, but they all work essentially in the same way. There are some major differences between the two different platforms, though. The biggest difference for me was the fact that Linux servers generally offer a catch-all email address. That way, if someone mis-spells your username, the email will still go to someone (usually the administrator). They also usually offer a blackhole address, so that you can route specific usernames off into a cyberspace-blackhole, never to be seen again. Exchange does not offer a catch-all address. If someone spells your username incorrectly, the email is simply bounced back to the sender as undeliverable.

Anyway, it really all comes down to a matter of personal preference. Personally, I prefer Linux servers. Some of this has to do with my disdain for most things Microsoft, some of it has to do with the fact that I've been using Linux servers for over ten years at this point, and had a bad experience with the one Windows server I used professionally, and some of it has to do with a simple bias based on years and years of hearing people all over the Internet talk about how much better Linux servers are than Windows servers.

When it all comes down to it, there is really very little fundamental difference between the two. It's almost completely just a matter of personal preference.