After lots of grumbles and annoyances with updating libraries and packages when trying to install a decent spam filter on FreeBSD (which is - in my opinion - still the best Unix/Linux in the world, though ), I decided to reinstall the server with Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
On its own, FreeBSD ran fine. Performance was super, stability was just awesome and the server ran flawless for almost a year and a half without rebooting. The only thing that always annoyed me was updating packages and libraries. Its the curse of open source software. Each developer wants to use his/her own libraries, which means that you end up installing 3 or 4 versions of the exact same library, just because Programmer A wants to use a function that is used in version 1.0.7, but was removed in version 1.0.8; and Programmer B uses a function that didnt exist in 1.0.7 yet, but does exist in 1.0.9, etc, etc its just highly annoying.
On Windows servers that whole issue is non-existing, since all the libraries are either included with the software package, or are included in Windows Update. The same goes for security updates and new features; theyre just much easier to deploy on Windows. So from a manageability point of view, Windows definitely has the upper hand on FreeBSD.
The installation was a bit of a pickle. The hosting company installed the server promptly, but sent the welcome letter to an email address that was going to be hosted on the very same server that they just reinstalled. After a lot of poking, prodding and nudging they finally agreed to send the welcome mail to an alternative e-mail address so I could log on to the server and do my installation.
The initial setup went flawless, and the server was up and running in a couple of hours. The only things that are left to do for the next couple of days are fine tuning/tweaking and getting an upgrade for the memory. As opposed to FreeBSD, Windows 2003 doesnt run optimal with just 512 MB. The website and server run ok, but theres some delays and lowered performance issues that can easily be fixed by adding some RAM.
I will ask the hosting company to upgrade it to 2- or 4GB, depending on the costs of course.