Hosting

[Briton]

HI!
I have leased a server of a long time and wanted to start my own server. The server i have write now runs on .asp and the other runs on linux.

What virsion of linux is best for a server? Als is there a way to dual boot from linux server to windows server on the same server?

Thanks Guy

[Twey]

What virsion of linux is best for a server?

If you ever ask "which Linux distro is best for..." on a Linux forum, dig in and get ready for a flamewar I'm a Fedora user (on the desktop), which is very nice, offering both power and usability. If you're not all that confident with Linux, use this. If you're a bit more advanced, I'd recommend OpenBSD, which, although not a Linux distribution (but then neither is Fedora) is a UNIX distribution, so has quite enough compatibility to be getting on with, and is purportedly very good for servers. I have a low-spec OpenBSD server, and it's been attacked several times, by myself and friends pen-testing it, and also by malicious unknowns, occasionally. It's stood up to just about everything I can hurl at it. I was impressed. Whatever you go for, a nice administration interface (like Webmin) will make your life a heck of a lot easier.

You can indeed dual-boot Linux and Windows Server, though the only thing Windows Server has that Linux can't duplicate (well) is ASP. The guys over at Mono are having a good crack at it, but I'm afraid they're just not there yet. (EDIT: actually, Sun seem to be developing an ASP engine that runs on Linux [RHEL, should run OK on Fedora].) I'm not too bothered; I've always preferred PHP anyway. As anybody who's tried getting Windows to play nicely with other operating systems will tell you, install Windows first -- making sure to leave some space free -- then use the free space for your other server OS of choice. Windows must be installed first, as it will attempt to overwrite any other bootloaders it finds.

[Briton]

Ok,
So ASP can run everything linux can? And off course ASP?

[Twey]

ASP isn't an operating system. I don't understand what you're comparing.

[Briton]

I am getting ready to run a server, and want to know if i could go with a windows server. If i did would it be able to run php and all those other linux languages as well as asp?

[Twey]

You could, but I'd strongly recommend a *n?x server.

[Briton]

how come?

[Briton]

Also Do you know much about php?
What does the error found http://www.websites4u.org/the/install.php mean?

[Twey]

Ah, dear.
Security: read this thread.
Ease of administration: yes, Windows is easier to administrate for basic tasks, but it's much easier to do more powerful administration tasks on *n?x. Also, simple and powerful tools like Webmin are available, which provide a much better administration interface than RDP. Tools like apache, php, perl, python, and various apache modules can all be installed with much less fuss than Windows.
Speed: debatable. My desktop runs far faster than it ever did when it ran Windows, though I haven't run any benchmarks. Especially if you have a 64-bit system (if you're running a 64-bit installation).
Open-source: guarantees quality code.
Also, from a more idealistic point of view, it's Free software. See http://www.fsf.org/.

[Briton]

So do you know how to fix the error i see at
http://www.websites4u.org/the/install.php