When you have made up your mind to initiate a website, the most important thing that you require is definitely the web hosting. Amongst other things, like expenditure and features, you will have to decide what server you will require: Linux or Windows. Linux is an operating system which is based on UNIX and today almost everyone having a PC will be aware that MS Windows is the commonly used operating system in desktop computers.
Both Linux and Windows have their advantages, so the primary thing you should consider when coming to a decision is whether you are on the lookout for stability or easiness in use. Linux servers are usually better in the uptime of the site and stability regions than Windows servers. On the other hand, while they require to get rebooted more frequently, Windows servers generally are easier for administration and use. Many beginners in web hosting will be puzzled over the details of the dissimilar operating systems. Although Linux is more secure and stable, for administration it uses an interface of command line and this interface being like the interface of initial MS-DOS can be hard to understand for the website newbie. Moreover, for keeping a Linux server stable, software and the kernel must be updated regularly, a process that is more complicated than Windows. However, this may be made equally easy to perform if the web host gets good software for administration.
Another important thing to be considered while choosing what operating system to employ is whether you are willing to use scripting and if so which kind. For instance, if you use the dynamic site and opt to prefer Perl as the chosen language then you should choose UNIX as the operating system. This also holds true for programming languages like PHP and Python. But if you wish to opt for the ASP scripts you should then choose Windows. However, to make the matter more complicated, some Linux systems can operate ASP scripts though script execution quality may be inferior.
Keep in mind if you go for Windows-based server, you will have to update software and patches downloading from Microsoft website nearly weekly so that your site does not get exploited. Linux administrators will have to do similar updating only monthly, as by nature Linux remains more secure and requires fewer updates for software and patches.
Linux hosting is cheap and is usually the preferred choice of people having restricted budget towards web hosting. However, at the end of the day, if you correctly do everything, both Linux and Windows will work somewhat equally and both should make one happy. Make sure to keep maintenance and operating costs in mind when making the decision and there will be no reason to regret it.
