Windows vs. Linux Hosting

Submitted by Shashank Wagh




Windows Hosting
Almost everyone who has ever used a PC knows that Microsoft Windows is the mostly widely used desktop operating system (OS) in use today. Although the tech savvy community is now more inclined to use alternate operating systems, Windows still has the majority share of the basic user (newbie) market because it’s easy to use. Microsoft launched Windows NT in 1994 to be used with network servers. Windows NT had an all new OS kernel different from it previous versions. Since then, Microsoft has released various versions of windows, based on the NT core, to be used as server systems. The latest of them is Microsoft Windows 2003. Like every other platform, Windows has its own benefits and disadvantages. We will examine these in brief.
Benefits

The benefits may vary depending upon the scripting language you use. I would call IIS (Internet Information Services) a major benefit on Windows. IIS 6 is the latest version of IIS with major performance upgrades and advanced features like XML Metabase, ASP Hang Detection, support for 64 bit servers, etc. ASP is the widely used language on the enterprise level for custom-made applications that require stability and performance. Windows supports Microsoft’s SQL server—one of the most robust DBMS around. With features is like stored procedures, triggers, etc., it is the favorite choice for performance-based application development. Another major benefit of the Windows platform is the support for the .NET framework. ASP.NET is popularly used nowadays due to its features like memory leak, crash protection, multi-language support, etc. Windows also supports certain enterprise level applications for high end-users. One of them is Exchange Servers, which is known for its rock solid performance in business-critical information handling.

Disadvantages

The most basic thing you should know about Windows hosting is that it involves a lot of licensing cost. The Windows OS itself is not free. IIS, ASP support and .NET support do come bundled with Windows, but MSSQL and Exchange servers need additional licenses, which are not cheap. Any additional component that might be needed on the server is also paid. The concept of open source software does not apply much in the case of a Windows environment except for Mysql, PHP and some other components, which are open source and compatible with windows. Windows hosting cannot be cheap because of these additional set up costs. The other disadvantage is that very few open source scripts compatible with Windows are available on the Internet. You have to purchase licenses for mostly any ASP or .NET scripts you want to use. The security, stability and performance of the server depends upon how it was set up largely, but I would still rate Windows a little low on


Linux Hosting

The term Linux does basically cover all UNIX-based operating systems unofficially, but Linux is, in reality, a UNIX-based operating system. Linux is known for it rigid security structure and stability, although it is not very good yet when it comes to ease of use. Linux does have GUI now, but Windows still scores over Linux on the GUI end. Linux was developed by Linus Benedict Torvalds in 1991 when he was a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland. It was freely distributed over the Internet and, since then, has become a very widely-used hosting platform. Like Windows, we will examine its benefits and disadvantages as below.

Benefits

Linux-based servers are very stable. The security model used on Linux makes it an easily-manageable, secure operating system. The best part is that Linux is open source and free to use. There are no licensing costs involved (unless you want to use the paid version). Many components used on a Linux server are freely available as well. Apache webserver, which is similar to IIS on Windows, is free. Perl, Mysql, PHP, Python and Ruby are some freely available programming languages you can use on a Linux server. Other components like Mail Transfer Agents (MTA) such as Sendmail, Exim and others are free to use as well. This makes Linux hosting cheap and a widely popular choice of people with a limited budget for hosting. HTML is platform-independent and works on both Windows and Linux. So, if your site has only HTML pages, Linux-based hosting should be the best choice for you as it is cheaper. Open source structure is the greatest thing about Linux. You have a very wide range of freely available scripts, snippets, applications, tools, etc., designed to work with Linux hosting, which makes it very easy for newbie webmasters/designers to build a website. Linux-based servers can be used to build a very strong control interface due to their system architecture. Many popular control panels are available for Linux servers. WHM/Cpanel is one that is very easy to use.
Disadvantages

There are not many major disadvantages of Linux servers when they are secured properly at set up. The only known disadvantage of using Linux hosting is that you should be aware of some basic UNIX stuff—like file permissions, ownerships, etc.—which is sometimes confusing for new users. Linux is exploitable if the server is not secured beforehand.
Conclusion
Both hosting platforms have benefits and disadvantages. The normal user is really the choice-maker now. The base features needed when developing a site should really determine whether you want it hosted on a Linux server or a Windows server. You can use the above points to decide which platform you should choose if your site can work on either of the two. Both these platforms have been industry standards for long time and are here to stay. Your requirements, paying capacity, experience and instinct should help you decide the best one for you. Happy host hunting!

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