Article in Hosting & Security

There are different advantages to using Windows hosting or Linux hosting to run your web site. There is no real difference to what a web visitor sees on a site hosted with Windows versus what a web visitor sees on a site hosted with Linux, the differences are more in the back end administration and how you develop your site. Some programming languages are only supported with Windows hosting, while others are only supported using Linux hosting; others are supported by both, and how you access your site files will differ based on the hosting you choose.

There is a definite difference in the pricing of hosting a site with Linux hosting as compared to Windows hosting. Most of the Linux operating systems are less expensive compared to Windows OS's because they are open source software, maintained by programmers and individuals who work on its' development on a volunteer basis. Windows hosting is based on the a special version of the Microsoft Windows operating system, where the developers get paid, and thus there are licensing fees required for Windows hosting.

The main difference between Linux hosting and Windows hosting is the development tools each option supports. If you write your scripts in ASP or ASP.NET, you don't have any options- you have to go with a Windows host because Linux simply does not support ASP. (It is possible to write ASP scripts within Perl and make it work with Linux, however!) Microsoft Access databases are only supported with Windows hosting, also. If you can use mySQL databases however, you are free to choose any form of hosting.

When you host your site on a Linux server, you'll have three different ways to access and modify your web site contents. You can use FTP (file transfer protocol), which allows you to fully create your web site and modify it on your own hard drive, and then upload the completed pages to your server, or you can use telnet or ssh. When you use a Windows server, your main option of creating or updating your website is to use FTP. There are a few Windows hosting companies that offer telnetting services; but this is rare.

Each operating system usually comes with its own supported control panel as well, cPanel and DirectAdmin for example are popular Linux based control panels, where Plesk is a popular Windows control panel, some webmasters select their platform based on the control panel they prefer.