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Choosing Between Web Hosting Systems Platform
One of the most
confusing decisions someone new to web hosting will have to make is which
platform their server should be on. There are a number of different choices out
there but the main two are Linux and Windows web servers. There are also a lot
of sources of information about hosting, but the majority of them are tainted by
the author's biased personal opinion unfortunately confusing the issue. Having
just put in some solid hours researching the topic I have come to the conclusion
that in general it quite probably does not matter which server you use. For the
majority of people it will be far more important to choose a really good web
host than to worry about the server-type that they implement.
Microsoft developed and owns the Windows operating system. Linux is open source
and generally free. This means it can often be more expensive to set up and run
a Windows server. However, this fact doesn't really affect you unless you are
actually setting up a server for yourself and if you're reading this article
then I'm guessing that it's safe to assume you're not. This article is going to
offer information for those trying to decide which hosting company to go with.
The cost involved in running a server does not affect the cost of a web-hosting
package as much as you may think. Despite the general opinion that Windows
servers are more expensive to run, buying a Windows hosting package can often
turn out to be just as cheap or even cheaper than an equivalent Linux hosting
package.
Some people naturally assume that because their PC runs Windows they need to buy
a Windows hosting package. This isn't true. Access to your web account will most
likely be through FTP or a control panel and both servers support these methods.
The main difference is that some of the FTP commands are slightly different
between Linux and Windows and some FTP programs will be designed with one or the
other in mind. This means you may occasionally find that when you try and get
your FTP program to do something it returns an error message, but it won't
happen very often.
Your choice of server platforms should be dictated by the use to which you
intend to put it. The majority of 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 limited support for a number of these technologies in
Linux, but they can be expensive and are usually lacking in features. It is
probably worth considering the fact 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.
The reliability and stability of the different platforms have been the topic of
many long arguments. 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. In the end the security of both platforms comes down to the competency of
the system administrators. If you are security minded then you'll do better to
make sure that the hosting company is reputable and highly skilled than to worry
about the server they use.
In terms of performance there's not a huge difference between the two servers.
Linux reportedly performs faster because Windows (as usual) attempts to offer an
'all in one' package instead of the extendable Linux implementation. You'll
generally not notice a difference but if performance is of utmost importance to
you then maybe this will influence your decision on
web hosting.
I've come to the conclusion that unless you are specifically using features that
are unique to one platform or another 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 the people implementing them that you should be basing your decision on. |
