Linux (and its close relation Unix) and Windows 2000 (and its close cousin Windows NT) are types of software (known as operating systems) that web servers use to do the kind of things that web servers do. You do not need to know any real detail of either to make a decision as to which you need but here a few guidelines.

it is normal for a freehost to be fast and cool after a few months. Wait 3-6 months more; no matter what the owner says; it probably is gone somewhere in that period. Cool if it is not, but most freehosts don't have a plan to make money and sure as hell Adsense on the site pages isn't enough to pay for real traffic which will be surging through it when it relaly gets popular.

There is lots of space and bandwidth talks going on these days with hosting companies trying to surpass each other, customer running after space and bandwidth, seems more of a fashion than any one really knowing what he/she needs in this area, May be this needs to be discussed

It’s a real dilemma these days as by spending some amount any hosting company can prevail at all possible location of customer search like google, yahoo, forums, market places etc. thus wherever you go you find few hosting companies haunting you.

There are two ways to find out the uptime of your host.