To a lot of us the difference between hosting solutions seems like a no-brainer and to others it seems a lot less obvious. This blog is meant to dispel a little of the confusion and hopefully help us all make better decisions.
The first difference between the two major operating systems in use for hosting is certainly the most obvious. If you are actually planning on interacting with your server directly then by all means you will certainly want to seek out the OS that you are most comfortable interacting with. For the rest of us there are different tools which are meant for managing our content. Tools such as cPanel or WebsitePanel.
When you are just getting started try Linux Hosting, an interface like cPanel can certainly help relieve some of that anxiety newcomers to web design often get but many users might see Linux as a bit foreign. You may be accustomed to using Windows primarily in other instances but don’t let that scare you away in this instance. Linux as an option for servers is typically appealing because of its simplicity. Installing certain programs and add-ons is very easy and can be done from cPanel. Because of this easy to use interface, its long history in the industry, and its security features Linux is the operating system in use on more than 60% of the worlds webservers. The cPanel interface is great at helping to do all of our software installations and management simply and quickly, especially with more repetitive tasks. WordPress, Drupal, and even Joomla are just 1 click to install. PHP, Perl or MySQL are all notable reasons to lean towards Linux as well.
Windows Hosting takes a different route for software installation. There are a number of interfaces available for Windows. One popular option that is open source is WebsitePanel. Being open source means that users and companies can alter the software to make it more efficient or beneficial. For instance ASPnix provides their own customized version of WebsitePanel to customers. ASP (ActiveServerPages), VisualBasic, or Microsoft SQL databases are all common reasons to depend on a Windows OS. WebsitePanel has these and other options available, .NET framework or SharePoint are also both accessible on Windows servers.
Ultimately, either solution has its benefits it’s up to you to determine what is best for your own use.
