Windows Server or Linux for final project

Question

A few weeks ago I came up with and idea to develop a mobile app which will direct students in my university to the nearest printer availiable. The whole thing is part of my final project.
The Android based app will need to perform the following tasks:

1. The user's location in the campus is sent to the server. Assume this part works just fine.
2. The server sends an SNMP request to the printers in the user's vicinity. I'll probably use PHP or Python for that part.
3. The data requested by SNMP is processed and sent back to the client

My question concerns the server. The university's IT manager offered me a designated server for development, which sounds great. Now I need to choose which OS I want installed on the server - Windows server or Linux (don't know which versions). I don't have any server programming/operating experince, but generally speaking I feel more comfortable in Windows enviroment (just because that has always been my OS).
I don't have an awful lot of time for learning a new OS, but if Linux is better suited for the project I described, maybe I will. Which server would you recommand in this case?
Thank you.

Answer 1

In most cases, Linux will be your best bet as a server platform.

Even though the Windows interface is familiar to you, learning the command line interface on Linux is not a difficult task at all (especially given the fact that you can code).

Essentially, your application server can run as a CLI on the Linux interface, controlled by basic commands. Most distributions of Linux offer a ridiculous amount of pre-built packages that you can install through a single command, whereas Windows does not have nearly as many available packages (mostly due to the fact that most developers build their applications upon Linux).

In the long run, building your app server on Windows will lead to more maintenance in the long run, versus just building and running your app server on a Linux box. I am recommending Linux 100% in this scenario.