Both Windows and Linux offer unique advantages to web site hosting. Each operating system can host your web sites in a professional manner which is reliable. Technically there is no difference to the end user (the client browsing your web site) if you use Linux or Windows hosting. The real differences are on the back end in which you develop the site. But first let's briefly look at the two operating systems.
Our Windows web site hosting is powered by Microsoft's Windows Server operating system. This is the latest version of this server class operating system and is a very good and stable platform for Windows hosting.
Our Linux web site hosting provides the utmost in stability, security and are ideal for server use in hosting.
Which is better for reliability? Actually at this point it really does not matter whether you choose the Windows operating system to host your web sites or a Linux based solution. Both offer premium uptime and reliability and security. In the past people used to use Linux because of its increased reliability over Windows, but since the Windows release of their server software Microsoft has definitely closed the gap in this area.
The place where Linux differs distinctly from Window server hosting is in the area of developmental tools. If you are writing your scripts in ASP or the advanced ASP.NET you need Windows hosting. Period. Linux does have an emulation program which allows ASP scripts to be run under it but you have to write your ASP scripts in Perl to use it. True ASP is only available on a Window based web hosting platform. Another area in which Windows is the only choice is if you need integration with Microsoft's tools. MS SQL databases, access databases, the newer extended frontpage extensions and other specific Microsoft tools are only available with Windows.
If you need these tools then you need Windows web hosting. If you do not need these specific items then maybe you should look at Linux based web hosting. With both Windows and Linux you can use Perl, MySQL databases, use cgi scripts and a whole lot more. All these items are available on both hosting platforms. However, if you do not need the specific items available for only Windows hosting then you should use Linux hosting.
No. Whether you use Windows hosting or Linux web hosting the end user will not be able to tell the difference between the two operating systems. They will appear the same no matter which platform you use.
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