Linux vs. Windows Web Hosting


One of the hardest decisions to make about web hosting is which platform their server should be on. There are a a few different choices to chose from but the main two are Linux and Windows web servers. As many of you already know Microsoft developed and is the owner of Windows operating system, whereas Linux is open source operating system and is usually free. Many people probably think that just because their computer already runs on Microsoft Windows that they need to by windows webhosting but this just is not true.  To access to your web hosting account will most likely be through FTP or a control panel and both Linus and Windows support these methods. The difference between Windows and Linux is that some of the FTP commands are slightly different and some of the FTP programs are designed with one or the other in mind. What this will mean to you is the when you try and get your FTP program to do something it might return an "Error" message, but typically this is not very common and you should not run into this problem very often.
 


You should make your choice on either Windows or Linux depending on how you intent to use it.  Most web features 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. There is a very limited support for a few of these technologies in Linux, and they can be quite expensive and lack in features compared to Windows. It is worth it to consider that if you use server specific technologies and then change hosts you'll have a much harder time of it than if you use technologies that can be run on any system. Having it run generic technologies removes the need to focus on specifics and allows you to focus on the quality of service itself.

There have been many arguments about the reliability and the stability of the different platforms.  Windows operating system has been criticized as being insecure but this is because it is the most used operating system in the world and people are always looking for flaws in the most popular systems. With Linux being the a very common server type as well, it has does boast a surprising number of successful hack attempts made on it. In the end the security of both platforms come down to the competency of the system administrators. If you are security minded then you should always make sure that the web hosting company that you choose is reputable and highly skilled than to worry about the server they use.

 
There is not a huge difference between the two service when it comes to their performance. Linux in many cases performs faster vs. Windows which has been know to perform slower (as usual).  This is because Windows (as usual) attempts to offer an 'all in one' package instead of the extensible Linux implementation. You'll generally not notice a difference but if performance is the most important to you then maybe this will be influential in your decision.

In conclusion unless you are specifically using the features that are unique to one platform or another your time will be much better spent looking for a great quality host than a good quality server. Developers are continuously improving both Linux and Windows so they should be fairly close in terms of features, security, and reliability.