[ILUG] Linux Internet Cafe Software?

[Nicholas Kelly]

Dear All,

It looks like I might be writing the software that handles everything login/logout related for an internet cafe. This will include guest logins and member logins. Unfortunately my Linux programming experience is very limited and I would greatly appreciate any suggestions that anyone could give me on how to get started on this project. I have extensive Java experience as well as some graphics programming experience with C/C++. I'm also familiar with PHP/MySQL. 

What would be the best language to do this in? I'm not terribly concerned with portability, just as long as it works on all the main Linux distros, M$ is not important. 

One of my main concerns is how to handle logins. Should every login simulate a normal guest logging into a Linux account or should the software be running on a guest account all the time?

Many thanks indeed for any assistance that anyone can give me,

Best Regards,

Nick

PS: I'm very open to learning new languages.