Why choose a Windows or a Linux system

I have a windows computer, so I need windows hosting right? WRONG.

Many people think that because they have Windows on their home or work computer, they need a Windows web hosting server. This is completely incorrect. The connection being made to the server is internet based.

But I don't know how to use Linux...

Take a look at the two images below- one is for a Windows hosting platform the other is for a Linux platform.
Can you tell which one is which?




So now that you can see the look of the platform shouldn't be the deciding factor, lets talk about what should be

(Unix and Linux are for the most part, the same type of system. The differences are insignificant unless you are going to use command line or administer the computer yourself.)

How will you create your site?

Using Front Page - Linux can handle that as long as there are front page extensions. Windows can handle Front Page as well, as long as it hasn't been upgraded to IIS version 7. (Microsoft wants people to finally move on from a program that hasn't been updated since 2003 so they stopped supporting it.)
Using a database - Microsoft Access or MSSQL will only work on a Windows system. Other databases systems such as MySQL, SQLite and Postgre are offered extensively on Linux platforms
Using special scripting - Coldfusion, ASP, Visual Basic, these are specialized scripting languages that only work on a Windows system. A Linux system can only run ASP with the help of an emulator. PHP and Perl run on either platform, but works better on a Linux system.
Reliability and Speed - Linux is more stable and faster than Windows.
On a Budget - Since Linux is open source and Windows charges a licensing fee, linux hosting is cheaper than windows hosting.
Options - Most hosting applications, such as OsCommerce and WordPress were designed to work on a Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP server system. Since Linux is Open Source, there are more available applications that will run on a Linux system. Web hosting companies usually allow a greater freedom of access on Linux than on Windows.