That should say Linux vs Windows I suppose. I want to know which one is better, not what other options there are.
No offence. I don't know Gentoo so I don't know wether that was sarcasm but anyway.

Linux

Gentoo is Linux lol

There really isn't a better. That's like asking if a hammer or a screwdriver is better. It depends.

I would recommend Linux, though, bexuase it will give you a different experience and is a very useful skill to have. The communities also tend to be friendlier and more helpful, in my experience.

Also, you can't choose "Linux". You'll need to pick a distro such as RedHat, SuSe, Ubuntu, Arch, etc

@pangloss: Sorry, didn't know Gentoo is Linux too :-)

The hosting service I'm working with offers me the choice between Linux and Windows, so I can choose Linux :-)
I'll figure out which Linux that would be later I suppose, if it matters for my choice.

"I would recommend Linux, though, bexuase it will give you a different experience and is a very useful skill to have."

May I ask what experience is different in what way and why it would be a more useful skill to have, compared to Windows skills I suppose?

I'm guessing I'm not coming to the point where it really makes a different anytime soon, but it's still good to know I suppose..

Only the first line is @pangloss, the rest of the message is @abgemacht.

Not like it matters :-)

The way you interact with the computer is completely different.

You can do everything you want from the terminal in Linux, which can be very nice if you're remotely connecting into the server, like you will be.

I'm not necessarily saying it's more useful than Windows, but I'm presuming you already use a windows computer, otherwise you wouldn't be asking. If you choose a Linux server, you'll have some experience in both.

The other nice thing is that if you learn one distro of Linux, you can use prettyuch any computer in the world (OS X, BSD, Solaris, Hp-UX, AIX). If you stick yo Windows you'll only be able to use Windows.

Driving an automatic is fine, bit it's nice to know how to drive a manual.

In terms of the actual technical differences:

Linux is mostly POSIX compliant

Windows uses a registry, which really sucks

File systems are different

Permissions are handled differently (I greatly prefer Linux, but some people like Windows)

You can get pretty much anything you need for free on Linux, but you'll never really know of it's going to work.

Linux also has package managers, which are excellent.

Of course, the downside of Linux is that sometimes you have to spend a couple of hours fixing it. Depending on the distribution you get, it could be easy or hard (some communities are more helpful than others).

So would Windows be what you'd use for legacy systems and such, things that simply must not fail?

No. If you want reliability, you'd get Linux. If you want reliability and have money, you'd get Unix.

And yeah, package managers are awesome.

Also, what are you planning on doing? Because some things are easy on Linux and a nightmare on Windows. The reverse is also true

The best thing to do would be to download a live CD of Ubuntu and just run it on your computer to see if you like it.

For now I'm sticking to designing fairly simple websites (or hosting complicated websites) with a bit more than just html and css, but I'm slowly but steadily learning more tricky stuff. I suppose I'm not going to be bothered by either choice anytime soon and I can also choose what kind of platform I want for each seperate domain so it doesn't seem that important for now, but I got curious. I suppose whatever limits me the least as I start doing more complicated stuff..

Right now I don't really know what that more complicated stuff would be though.

I would definitely recommend Ubuntu to a new linux user.

You could also try any of the *buntu variants or Mint. Because Unity is bullshit.

For web serving, go with Linux. Not only is it more common, and thus useful to know (Unix has about a 70% market share on web servers), Windows pretty much sucks for that stuff. For the reasons abge gave, but with more passion and banging on the table.

Oh, and if you're *installing* linux, I recommend Arch. But you're probably not, if your web host is administering the machine.

IMHO, Arch is a bit daunting for first-time linux users.

That's fair abge. I think it's good if one is looking to be immersed in linux and be forced to learn it, because it has a steeper curve than some, but good documentation. But maybe it is too steep, and in fairness, the documentation has been getting noticeably worse of late. So I will agree and retract my recommendation of arch for first-timers, though it does rule for people who know their way around a bit.

Okay I think I know enough. Thanks.

@semck, since steephie seems to be a GNU/Linux newbie, it's probably not a good idea to start with Arch. Now, to be clear, I absolutely love my Arch installation, and I think pacman and yaourt is are glorious. But it wasn't easy to set up a GUI for me, and I suspect that newbies will have trouble with it as well. The Wiki is helpful but poorly formatted, and every time you post in the forum, the first reply is "check the Wiki". And with updates every week, he'll be spending a lot of time messing around with init files.

For servers, steephie probably wants Debian or CentOS.