Jun 27 2009
Windows or Linux Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated server hosting gives you complete control of the server hosting your web site. You choose what runs on the server and how secure it is. Different dedicated server operating systems are available and the main two operating systems used are Linux and Windows.
Linux Dedicated Server Hosting
These servers come with the free Operating System Linux installed on them. Cheap linux dedicated server are typically used with an Apache web server, PHP and mySql configuration. On these servers, you will be given root access for control of aspects including domain and web site configuration and the conf file if running Apache web server. Since Linux is a free operating system, there is no overhead cost for licensing and this results in the Linux Dedicated Servers being a cheaper option.
Windows Dedicated Servers
As the name of a Windows Server implies, this will be running a Windows Server operating system on the server. Currently, service providers are offering the newest version of the OS: Windows Server 2008. The common configuration setup for a Windows server is different than a Linux server as it runs IIS as the web server and SQL server to handle database requirements. A Windows dedicated web server is able to run a WAMP (Windows, Apache, mySql, PHP) configuration. Windows servers do typically cost more because windows is not a free operating system, like the Linux OS is.
The reason to pick Linux or Windows for your dedicated server really will depend on the server owners needs. Different requirements will lead to different server selection. From a price standpoint Linux dedicated server plans will be more inexpensive than a Windows server. Anyone running open source PHP applications will almost always want to select a Linux server as their first option. If you plan to develop using Microsoft .Net, you will need to select a Windows Server, and you will typically get SQL server database with it. In the end, the choice of what server you pick will be based on your own web site hosting requirements.
You will need to decide if you want a managed or unmanaged dedicated server after selecting a server operating system. If you want to handle everything including patches and configuration, you will want to go with an unmanaged server leaving all the responsibility with you, while a managed server will take care of this for you, including server backups for a lot of them.
