linux will give you the following, if you're moving from windows:
a) better security options (you can run the emu as a low security user, and even chroot it if you're extra paranoid).
b) better remote access options (ssh requires much less resources than remote desktop, but steer away from telnet and ftp since they send passwords in plain text).
c) arguably, better resource management (you can generally run anything under linux with less resource requirements than windows).
AFAIK, the code base is virtually the same between linux and windows (i'd guess the differences are handled via #pragma style directives since i havent tripped over any wintel specific files. with that said, you will probably see the same or similar issues under linux. i know on my linux server i see zone crashes from various known issues, like bard songs, damage shields, etc. the nice thing about linux is you can do all sorts of things to the machine and NOT have to reboot, which is a major annoyance under windows for me.
as for linux flavors, i'd go with a distro that comes with a book to start, like gentoo, red hat, etc. i run slackware which is the oldest distro currently maintained (well over 15 years and running), but its not as polished and more geared for someone who wants to run linux without all the bells and whistles (aka: i just want a rock solid server, period.)
a good start would be to build a linux box on some spare hardware if you have some (even an old crappy 486 or pentium 1 will suffice). once you have it up and running, experiment with rebuilding the kernel (most default kernels are bloated and contain crap you never need for just a vanilla server). once you feel comfortable with the installation and running, build a server on your dedicated box and enjoy.
== sfisque
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