Web hosting is required if you are going to get your website live on the Internet. You will be posed with a very serious question: should you use a Linux platform, or side with Windows? This is tough to answer when taking into account that there is much bias in the issue, but there are some things to help you decide.

Although Windows is prized as a consumer PC operating system, Linux seems to be the more popular among Internet servers. Linux has long been renowned for its security, up-time, and many features that relate to web hosting in particular. Linux systems also tend to cost less since some are open source, although this isn’t always the case. Licensing for extra features may also occur.

Linux environments also allow easy access to one of the most popular web development languages in the world, known as PHP. PHP works together with a database system, most commonly MySQL, to provide dynamic and innovative web development applications. Windows instead has ASP, which has a loyal fan base but is not as popular as PHP numbers have proven to be. ASP is quickly becoming more popular with each passing year, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to learn some basics.

The common misconception in web hosting is that you should use the same platform for your server that you do on your home computer. Although migrating to a new platform could take some time in growing accustomed to, you should know that this shouldn’t be a deciding factor if you haven’t ever had experience with Linux before and are debating using it.

People like to bash Microsoft products for being insecure, but usually it is up to the server administrator to know how to lock down a server. Microsoft is also part of a larger market share, so it gets more attention from hackers and malicious users. Instead you should focus on security knowledge that you can apply to your server, instead of wondering which operating system is going to be more secure.

Typically a Windows system will perform slower than a Linux machine. In Linux you will have to install or configure most of the services you will want to use. Some Windows distributions will come with many services open and running- meaning it could degrade the server performance. Linux platforms are also more adept in performance due to their nature in lacking an extensive user interface, although this is no longer a problem with recent GUI updates.

In Conclusion

Your choice should mostly be dependent upon what you want to do and how you want to accomplish it. If you already have knowledge of PHP and MySQL, you should side with Linux. If you are more familiar with Windows systems and such, your best bet is with them.