Only if your'e running Windows 9X/ME/NT 4.0 to run your server.
Windows 2000, XP, and 2003 work great as servers. They're stable, secure, and reliable.
I do agree that Linux and UNIX do make better servers though simply because there's less overhead (as long as you aren't running your X-window GUI). This allows a program to run faster (sometimes MUCH faster) on a slower system.
In the past, people gave Microsoft and Windows a bad rap because it actually sucked. Now, people give it a bad rap because they're allowing experiences that are
10-15 generations old (in computer terms) to unduly influence their opinions. Windows has come a LONG way in the past 7 years.
Some of you may be saying "well, if it's so secure, why is it always getting hacked?" There are two reasons for this.
- Windows is SO easy to use that frequently, those who use it don't know enough about the system to make it secure. They don't remove unneeded services, they don't conifgure the firewalls, and they don't restrict access like they should. The only reason this doesn't happen on Linux and UNIX systems is because they have a steeper learning curve and, by the time you can properly install Linux/UNIX on a system, you're more likely to know how to secure it.
- Windows is - by FAR - the most common OS out there. While some estimates say that Windows is running on as few as 55%, some go Much higher. Into the 90s even! This means that, if you're a hacker, you're not going to be worring about hacking into Linux or Mac systems. Even using the 55% extimates, you're still going to go for Windows. After all, who wants to work tiwce as hard (i.e.: hacking two OSes instead of one) and still not even get access to half the systems out there!