On a sunny day (Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:52:38 -0400) it happened "Tom Lake"
wrote in :

Not one single driver I have tried to install in wine works _NOT ONE_.
Same for running virtualiser software, it is annoying slow, dual boot Linux plus
windows is the only option.
A problem if you have the same PC up as a server (can not just go offline).
So you need 2 computers, one for Linux and one for whatever MS software, or maybe
even 3.

Why would you use a server to run apps? A server should just be a server and
not used as a general PC anyway.

At home I have now 3 PCs.
The panteltje.com servers are at my home.
No ISP, no server space lease, the name server is here too.
I have to do other things with the PCs too, and also I want to be 'green'.
To be the greenest in the world, I sometimes use the LinkSys WAP 54G as web server,
it only uses 12 Watt or less, BUT it runs my own written name server,
and with all those denial of service attacks, I counted many many... sometimes
going on for weeks on port 53, the real bind is better, unfortunately I have not
compiled it yet for the MIPS processor in the WAP
(the 'WAP' is the wireless access point too, it runs Linux).
Then there is other stuff that I need to do too.
Anyways the big PC is the home media center, home automation control,
security camera recording, background music, records digital satellite TV, plays movies,
anything you can think of, and is used for video editing, and normally as webserver,
ftp, name, and smtp (!) server too.
Works perfectly.
You can see system load here (I just transferred the site back to it):
http://panteltje.com/panteltje/view_sensors.php
So, the short answer: to use the hardware and energy as efficient as possible.
And it is no problem for a simple processor to do all those things, there are cycles spare.
It has been up for about 8 years or so now, same PC, Tyan mobo, AMD processor,
only had to replace fans a couple of times, Seagate harddisks never a problem,
those clocked more then 5 years 24/7.
A thing like this will likely be in each home one day, smaller, just for the above things.
I am simply 10 or more years ahead :-)