Linux or Windows for your web hosting server, what’s the difference?

What is the difference between Windows and Linux

It has to be said many people, to begin with are worried about using Linux for their web hosting service, because like most of the world they are used to using Windows based platforms, but whatever system you choose to run your website from if you are using a hosted service then it really makes little difference in terms of the required knowledge that you need, as your hosting company will take care of the Linux operating system

Linux and Microsoft Windows are two completely different types of operating systems, Windows we all know, but Linux is based on Unix.

Both systems are very good for web hosting, but which is right for you? Linux or windows.



The cost
If you choose to run a local web server, a big point to think about is cost, the price of Linux is free, as it’s an open source operating system, as opposed to Windows which is licensed to one copy per machine, Windows XP or Vista is relatively cheap, but you’d really want to run Windows server which is pretty expensive, if you really need to run Windows server it’s worth looking to find a legal copy of Windows 2000 server as this has now been replaced by 2003, and bringing its prices down.

How Reliable
Both Windows and Linux are very reliable, but as Windows is a more common operating system, there can be more security risks as virus’s and security loop hole patching are a frequent part of Microsoft life.

But more importantly than this make sure that your hosting company offers very good uptime.

Performance
Side by side a Linux based system does generally run faster than Windows, this is due to the amount of extra’s that Windows runs as a default, but this can be inconsequential as it’s really down to both the hardware it’s running on and the speed of the network connections.

Extras
Windows based systems support ASP or Active server pages, a Microsoft’s own scripting language from which you can build dynamically web pages such by connecting to a database such usually SQL. Linux does not support ASP, but uses Perl/PHP as its scripting language and MYSQL databases.

So unless you really have your heart set on using Windows give Linux a try, if you are looking to install a dynamic website **see below for what is a dynamic website. Then Linux is not only free, but there are already many free scripts around to do exactly what you want, you’ll need to get your fingers a little bit dirty as you will need to know how to import scripts and upload files, but you really won’t need to learn any in-depth programming.

A Dynamic website refers to a website that actually composes the pages usually from a database as the person browsing requests them to enhance the browsing experience, we’ll use my wife’s website as an example, www.educational-toys.eu, if you enter a search term such as paper it will compile a list of all of the products with the word paper in the title, the list or composed page does not actually exist before you enter the word, it’s tailored to your customers search requirements.

Another benefits of dynamic websites is the ease at which new products can be added or removed, it only needs to be added or removed in one location, the same as the look of the website, if a single page element is changed it can then easily be implemented across all pages as the pages are using CSS or cascading style sheets.

If you are looking to create a dynamic website, but really don’t know where to begin, which is where we were about 12 months ago, checkout Cubecart.com which is what we have used to create my wife’s website.

So what will be it Linux or Windows ?

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