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One of the most confusing decisions someone new to web hosting have to make is which platform their server should be on. There are several different options out there but the main two are Linux and Windows web servers. There are also many sources of information about hosting, but most of them are tainted by the biased personal opinion unfortunately confusing the author of this problem. Having just put in some solid hours researching the topic I have come to the conclusion that in general, quite probably does not matter which server you use. For most people it will be far more important to choose an excellent web host than to worry about the type of server they execute.

Microsoft developed and owns the Windows operating system. Linux is open source and generally free. This means it can often be more expensive to establish and run a Windows server. However, this fact does not really affect you unless you actually set up a server for yourself and if you’re reading this article then I suspect that it’s safe to assume you do not. This article will provide information for those trying to decide the hosting company to go with. Costs involved in running the server does not affect the cost of web-hosting package as much as you might think. Although the general opinion that Windows servers are more expensive to run, buying a Windows hosting package can often turn out to be just as cheap or even cheaper than the equivalent Linux hosting package.

Some people naturally assume that because their PC runs Windows they need to buy a Windows hosting package. This is not true. Access to your web account will most likely be through FTP or a control panel and both servers support these methods. The main difference is that some FTP commands are slightly different between Linux and Windows and some FTP programs will be designed with one or the other in mind. This means you may occasionally find that when you try and get an FTP program to do something it returns an error message, but it will not happen very often.

Your choice of server platforms should be dictated by the use you intend to put it. The majority of web features run fine on both platforms including PHP, mySQL, POP3 etc. If you intend to create your site using ASP, FrontPage, environment. NET, Windows Streaming Media, Access, MSSQL, or any other Microsoft proprietary technologies then you probably need to use a Windows host. There is limited support for a number of these technologies in Linux, but they can be expensive and usually lacking in features. It is perhaps worth considering the fact that if you use server specific technologies and then change hosts you’ll have a much harder time of it than if you use a technology that can run on any system. After running a generic technology eliminates the need to focus on specifics and allows you to focus on the quality of the service itself.

Reliability and stability of the different platforms has been a topic of long debate. The main reason that Windows is seen as unsafe is that it is the operating system most widely used for home PC’s. People spend more time looking for flaws in the system are most common. With Linux as the most common server type, it has a surprising number of successful hack attempts made on it. In the end the security of both platforms comes down to the competence of the system administrator. If you are security minded then you will do better to ensure that the hosting company is reputable and highly skilled than to worry about the servers they use.

In terms of performance there is no major difference between the two servers. Linux reportedly performs faster because Windows (as usual) trying to offer an ‘all in one’ package is not extendable Linux implementation. Generally you will not notice a difference but if performance is important to you then maybe this will affect your decision.

I came to the conclusion that unless you are specifically using features that are unique to one platform or another your time will be much better spent searching for hosts who really qualified than the server is really qualified. Developers are constantly improving both Linux and Windows so they should be pretty close in terms of features, security, and reliability for a long time. It is the people implementing them that you should base your decision on.