WHAT'S A GOOD HTTPD FOR THIS

i have setup me a linux gateway/router/fileserver (and you guys helped me out with where to look for IP masquerading/NAT info, thank you!) and it is working well so far.

see, what i want to do though is be able to turn my main machine (this) off and have my other machine (it's name is minion, it's the gateway/router/etc.) do bittorrent downloads as well as it's other duties.

i have a command line bittorrent client installed on minion, but i need some sort of interface to where i can use this computer to invoke and manage minion's bittorrent client when i want to do a large download.  that way the download continues while my main computer is off.

i figure this is a job for a httpd and some kind of program via CGI (haven't decided what I'll write it in yet, NOT php though).  this httpd will not be doing any serious serving to the public at large, it will basically just act as a web-based interface to this bittorrent client (and i may expand it to interface to other programs as well)

so what httpd should i use? apache? lighttpd? boa? any suggestions?

and if there is some kind of software package out there that does this already, speak up!

keep in mind i do not have X installed on minion, nor a keyboard or monitor hooked up either.  i'm comfortable logging in via ssh and doing it but i want something that my non-command line oriented friends and family can use.

If it's so great, how come so few heavy-lifters use it?

I'd also be interested to hear a detailed comparison between lighttpd and apache 2.2. For some reason most comparisons I see are to 1.3, which is amusing.