Windows or Linux Web Hosting?

Windows and Linux (Unix) are two major operating systems used by web hosting company's servers. They both have their pros and cons. When you are selecting a hosting service to grow your business, you will need to consider both sides of each one of these operating systems.

Both Windows and Linux are enterprise application servers. They both can be used for a variety of purposes, including, interactive websites, email, and database hosting. Neither one is limited to those three popular functions.

Using Windows servers, either the Windows 2000 server or the latest Windows 2003 server, will offer you some useful features that you won't find in the Linux system.

Personally, you will have several real benefits if you select Microsoft's Windows Server:

Microsoft is famous for providing updates to keep your hosted business modern and easily flowing.
You can use familiar Microsoft tools to develop your website, like Microsoft Frontpage, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL and Visual Interdev.
Support for Active Server Pages (ASP), which is a very popular reason to use the Windows Server for your hosting needs.
You can build dynamic database-driven web pages, using either MS Access or Microsoft's SQL server.

Unix prides itself on being an entirely different operating system, an "open system" with publicly available source code. Unix hosting comes in several versions to allow you to customize your hosting to suit your purposes:

Linux: Linux is both free software and open source software. You can download and run it on your computer and get all the source code for the operating system, too. Linux will run on almost anything, from mainframes to cell phones.
AIX: Run the applications you want to run on IBM Unix servers with this Unix operating system. This is an open standards-based system.
Solaris: A Unix-based operating system known for its scalability.

While developers all over the globe have added to the Unix system's development, giving it a wide selection of functions and enhancements, it is more complex than the Windows Server and less coordinated. Two of the major differences between these two systems include:

Unix supports remote interactive access using telnet or SSH. You will be able to do more of your own configuration and setup tasks with Unix than with Windows.
CGI programs are usually Perl scripts and have been developed on Unix platforms. This makes them install and operate smoother on a Unix system. An added benefit is that many of the Perl scripts are free.

Your task, as a website owner, is to decide what features you need to support your business before choosing either one. It doesn't make good business sense to pay for features you don't need or won't use.

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