Web hosting can be difficult to grasp at the best of times but when you're confronted with the question, do you require a Linux package or a Windows package it becomes even more daunting. People usually opt for what they know and choose Windows which isn't necessarily the right solution.

We'll try to explain further....Linux and Windows are two types of Operating System (OS). WIndows, as you probably are aware, is the most popular OS for PCs and laptops and many mobile devices, for example you may be using Windows 8, however, for servers Linux is the leading OS.

The common and most obvious misconception when choosing a hosting package is that your hosting package and therefore your server OS has to be the same platform that runs your PC, i.e. if your local machine runs Windows, the server needs to run Windows. In fact the type of hosting OS you choose depends on how you plan on implementing your website, the development language and/or the type of database that you require to store the data and not the OS your desktop uses. If you use a Mac then we would definitely recommend Linux as it has the same style terminal access that is standard in Mac OS and this will be familiar.

Linux hosting is by far the most popular operating system on our servers - 97% of our servers use Linux. If a customer asks advice, in nearly all instances we'll recommend a Linux hosting package. Linux hosting is the premium platform if you want to run a MySQL database, and if you use PHP, Perl or Python scripting (in our opinion). It’s also the best solution if you want to use popular web applications (scripts) like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Prestashop, Opencart and more.

We would definitely recommend Windows Hosting if you want to use Microsoft’s ASP or ASP.NET languages to develop your site, and also if you want to implement a MSSQL database (this actually costs extra though which is another reason why people avoid this although this is host specific).

A Useful Linux vs Windows Table

As stated above, to make sure you get the right type of account, you should make a choice based on how or what you're using to build your site.

Creation Method	Linux	Windows
Wordpress Or Other CMS
Dreamweaver Or Serif
PHP, MySQL, CGI, Python, or Perl
ASP, ASP.NET, MS SQL
What Are You On About?
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