I'm writing in PHP on an Apache server running on *nix right now. PHP is your friend -- it's free, powerful, Yahoo just decided to start using it, interfaces very well with MySql and PostgreSQL, the two best free database solutions (LJ runs a backend mysql database as far as I know), widely used and has an awesome user community. also microsoft sucks. If you decide you are serious about it, i have a number of php related books in pdf format i can throw up on the web for you to go get. I also have webspace on a Unix server you can play with if by some chance you don't have access to such(which you should...all the hippies in seattle love free software don't they?)