Running Linux is superior to Windows in so many ways for running a server that anyone with the technical skills to do so, should without doubt do it.
Advantages of Linux over Windows:
1. No player ghosts caused when players exit the game. On Windows, these plague server performance for RAM, CPU and most importantly upload bandwidth.
2. All networking is done better for database editing changes remotely. Changing the database on the Linux Server from a remote PC (even a windows PC) is just as fast as editing it on the server itself. Remote database changes (especially using tools like GeorgeS' Tools) take 10+ seconds per change if you are making them from a windows to windows connection.
3. System resources are noticeably less when running Linux instead of Windows. I can get 100+ players on and only be using around 1GB of RAM and 25% average CPU load, and not even touch the Virtual memory (and I have 2GBs of RAM).
4. Stability seems to be considerably better with Linux. Zones still crash if they are overloaded when players are AEing a ton of mobs, but it seemed much worse on windows.
5. Webmin tools to remotely manage every aspect of your server.
6. Security is much better on Linux than Windows.
The only negative part of Linux that I can think of is that it is considerably more complex to setup than Windows, but the wiki by Andmetal gives a perfect step by step guide to get the server up and running. I also plan to add some more notes that I have learned along the way with the Debian build that I think will help people tune their server and get additional features working for it.
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