I am going to be setting up a server to run a MUD on and am going to buy a new computer in the process to run it on. I was wondering if I should get a system and get Windows Server 2003 or go for a Linux box? Thanks!

Buy whatever you're most comfortable administrating. I can use both, and for servers that stay up in a closet somewhere, I prefer Linux; for machines with an attached keyboard and display and an on/off cycle, I prefer Windows.

Doesn't really matter.

What does matter is how well you know the operating system. Since you will need to make sure that you secure it fairly well if you are going to be exposing it to the outside world. Thus the choice of operating system should be based more around your knowledge of the operating system, and less about the hype surrounding a particular OS.

Either choice you make, you can easily get the system up and stable to run for months on end without a restart or crash (assuming you don't do something really nutty with your MUD like hooking OS calls).

I agree, use what you're comfortable with. When I first bought the server to run for my game I tried Linux, which was also the first time using Linux... needless to say it didn't work out.. I spent a week trying to just do "simple" things like setting up RAID and compiling my server before I gave up....

An important thing to remember, and had I remembered this I would have never tried Linux in the first place, Is don't forget you're going to want to be not only comfy with the OS, but also comfy with the debugging environment. If you are used to Windows and VS.net 2k3, then run in Windows using VS.net 2k3... when you check up on the server and see it has crashed, it will be a lot easier to figure out why in your normal development environment.

Well, I am not going to have anything else on the PC other than the MUDs files and I know absolutely nothing about Linux so I will probably get Windows Server. Thanks much!!