Here’s a really good reason why you should never use Windows as a server operating system (even if you still think you should use it as a desktop OS). I don’t see a lot of websites crash like this anymore, but when they do they are almost always built using Windows, .NET or the other technology that is best avoided, Java (I won’t get started on that one today though).
In this case, I was attempting to submit a form for a recall on a battery charger that goes with my cordless drill. The server apparently is not working though, and felt the need to give me a stack trace (something that would have been much better off being emailed to a system administrator, who could wake a developer and get the thing fixed. If enough developers are woken up in the middle of the night to fix this kind of thing, eventually they’ll refuse to accept Windoze as a server platform. Ideally, they’d refuse to use it entirely since it isn’t really suitable for anything these days.
methinks your warning a bit late: according to my informed sources, way over 50% data centre servers are running some form of windows. depressing notion given how well the minions of micro$lop write code. however in all fairness, i’ve seen stack traces & other such crap from oracle apps running on *nix machines.
may i hazard the guess that it’s more configuration ineptitude than the o/s or app?
a similar example is the fatherland insecurity department’s “how to get through our inconvenience travellers queue faster” screens with a windows alert pop-up in the middle of its display. i was at sfo only a few weeks ago & it was still there – previously posted on my photoblog in june …