When choosing a Web hosting provider, one consideration is
the operating system you would prefer your server to run on. We
would generally suggest one of the two popular options Linux or
Windows, there is currently not much between the two,
Microsoft developed and owns the Windows operating
system while Linux is open source and generally free. This means to
set up and run a Windows server is more expensive. However, this
will not really affect you unless you are actually setting up the
server yourself. This being the case you your time would be
better spent concentrating more on the hosting provider you choose
as the operational differences are not that major and it all comes
back to personal preference or which system you have grown used to.
And No! Its makes no difference at all what system the
accessing computer uses.
What are your Operating Systems
Options
- Linux
Linux is the
more popular operating system on the Web, because its cheap to
install and relatively simple to get up and running.
- Windows
Windows is second most
popular operating system for Web hosting providers due to the
abundance of support available.
- Unix
Unix similar to Linux, but not
as popular on Web hosting services, as its expensive and the
hardware is more specific and not as
flexible.
- Macintosh
Macintosh hosting servers
are not as popular, and if you want to host your site on a
Macintosh server, you’re better of hosting it yourself.
Operational differences.
Accessing the Server
Both Windows and Linux have FTP access to your files,
however Linux tends to offer Telnet or SSH access while few hosting
providers offer it for Windows. FTP is a way of transferring your
files from your hard drive to your Web server. Telnet and SSH are
used to open a window directly on the Web server and edit files
right directly with Unix command lines. Some of the FTP
commands differ between Linux and Windows while other FTP programs
may be designed with one or the other in mind. This means on
occasion when your running your FTP program it returns an error
message, however this is uncommon and easily
remedied.
Performance
There
no major difference between the two servers. Linux tends to be
slightly faster due to Windows comprehensive package as apposed to
the extendable Linux implementation. On the whole the difference is
not noticeable however if performance is an issue and your
optimising for speed then this may be worth considering.
Writing Your Pages
Both Windows and Linux servers serve HTML pages and
JavaScript. Typically, Windows servers use files named *.htm while
Linux servers use files named *.html, there is no real difference
and you can use both file names on either
server.
FrontPage extensions are often the “reason†to use a
Windows server, however there are Linux servers that offer this
service as well.
Compatibility Issues
The use to which you intend to put your web page is the
major reason to pick which server to use. Most web features
including databases run fine on both platforms including PHP, mySQL,
POP3 etc. If you intend to create your site using ASP, FrontPage,
the .NET environment, Windows Streaming Media, Access, MSSQL, or any
of the other Microsoft proprietary technologies then you probably
need to use a Windows host as there is little support for several of
these technologies in Linux, and they tend be expensive while
lacking in features. Anyway your probably better of sticking to
generic technologies from the start as this removes the need to
focus on specifics and allows you to focus on the quality of service
itself.
CGI and Perl access are often found on both Windows and
Linux servers, but it is more typical on Linux. If you need to
program forms, you should make sure that your hosting service
provides CGI or another way to process them.
But you're not stuck with just Perl if you need to process
forms. Many hosting systems offer PHP, ASP, and ColdFusion. These
server side scripting options give you a lot of flexibility. PHP is
more often found on Linux systems, while ASP is more often found on
Windows. ColdFusion can be found on both.
Security
Many people will argue that Windows servers have more
vulnerabilities than Linux servers. The main reason
that Windows is seen as being insecure is that it is the most widely
used operating system for home PC's. People spend more time looking
for flaws in the most common system. With Linux being the most
common server type, it has a surprising number of successful hack
attempts made on it.
The reality is that they both have security problems.
Security is more important at the hosting service's administration
level than it is at the operating system level. If you have good
administrators and the hosting company you use is
reputable, your server will be more
secure.
In conclusion
The differences between the operating systems are much less
than you might think unless you are specifically using
features that are unique to one platform or another. I
would recommend, when choosing a hosting server you find one that
has the options you want, rather than worrying about what operating
system they are running on the back end. Your time will
be much better spent looking for a really good quality host than a
really good quality server. Developers are constantly improving both
Linux and Windows so they should be fairly close in terms of
features, security, and reliability for a long time. It's hosting
providers implementing them that your decision should be based
on.
