Ah, very cool
To answer your last question first, Linux/UNIX systems are the primary servers for the Internet. Last I heard they owned something like 75%-80% of the market. It maybe even more? The reason for this is because UNIX operating systems, such as Linux, are extremely reliable as opposed to Windowzz operating systems. An e-commerce site must be up (practically) 100% of the time. Now nothing is perfect, but a UNIX os is definately closer to this requirment than any Windowz os. Check out this link for some really high end servers (just for fun
:
http://www.valinux.com/systems/ As for configuration and using Linux, check out this book (or something similar) - Running Linux by O'Reily, it has a guy on a horse on the front cover. See:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/156592469X/ref=pd_gw_cp_1/102-9703898-4886500 As for programming I would check out these books:
Beginning Linux Programming by Richard Stones and Neil Matthew I saw it on amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1861002971/qid=967218844/sr=1-22/102-9703898 -4886500 Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment by Richard Stevens. I saw it on amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201563177/qid=967218844/sr=1-2/102-9703898-4 886500 An O'Reily book UNIX in a Nut Shell wouldn't be bad to have around for reference to Unix commands.
Unix is written in C. If you start playing with it and find that you really want to get in depth I would recommend taking a C programming course or checking out some C programming books.
Of course, this is all cool and fun. But personnaly, I love to program in
Java and it definiately pays better - just my two cents worth.
Hope this helps,
Matt
[This message has been edited by Matt Midcap (edited August 25, 2000).]