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Windows vs. Unix Web Hosting

If you're looking to setup your own website, you'll have to pick a web host and hosting environment. Most web hosting companies offers two separate choices - Linux and Windows hosting. Which one is a better fit for your needs? In simple terms, answer to this question will depend on your own unique requirements. Are you going to use certain software products and scripts? What about database for your website? How about the running and upgrading costs?

Linux (and its close relation Unix) and Windows 2000/NT are two types of operating software that web servers use. You do not need to know any real detail of either to make a decision as to which you need but here a few guidelines. Remember, you might be more familiar with the name Windows because of your PC operating system but that doesn't mean that you need to opt for Windows based web hosting. The operating system you use on your desktop has little to do with your choice of a web host. As long as you have a good understanding of how to publish your website and update contents, you can use either operating system.

Most important questions is which application(s) are you looking to use for developing your website and its content? If you plan to use MySQL and PHP driven interactive contents, linux or unix hosting would work well. However, you can still use PHP and MySQL with Windows hosting plan if your web host offers these softwares and services. Also, keep in mind that if your website contains data that is mostly informational and doesn't need much interactive functionality, you're going to find linux hosting most efficient and cost effective. You can still add some interactive content using forms and PHP/MySQL. You can also incorporate online purchasing and other routine ecommerce functions.

On the other hand, if your applications are Microsoft-specific(for example, ASP, .NET etc), Windows hosting is your only option. If your website incorporates an online searchable database or interactive chat facilities then Windows 2000 or NT will be a better bet in most cases. It will cost a bit more but you’ll get that back in reduced development time and simply better functionality. But what is important is that you know what you want your website to do and what you want to offer. This is what will ultimately help determine the type of web hosting that will work best for you. As mentioned earlier, interactive websites usually rely on ASP, PHP, or Perl type languages.

When it comes to Web hosting, Linux has, for some time, been widely considered the best OS for Web servers. It’s typically found to be the most reliable, stable and efficient system and, as such, it’s commonly used for the demanding environment of Web and mail servers. Indeed, Most of the clients websites of alpha NET runs on the Linux OS precisely because of this traditional stability.

Here are some of the advantages of using Linux based web server compared to Windows based web server :

Stability:

Linux/Unix operating systems has traditionally been believed to be very stable and robust. A website housed on a Linux operating system will have very high up-time (of the order of 99.9%). Of course, other factors such as power supply, network admin skills, and network load etc. also matter when it comes to maintaining the system uptime.

Operating Cost:

The Linux OS comes free of cost (or at very insignificant cost, usually cost of distribution). Also, it has full fledged server, and desk top applications that comes free along with the OS. These server applications (such as FTP, Web Server, DNS Server, File Server etc.) being free, are also very stable.

Ease of Use:

When it comes to web hosting, it is easy to host on Linux web servers. The process of uploading and hosting is almost same for both Linux and Windows web servers. If you want to use a Windows based tool such as Frontpage for uploading a website on to a Linux based web server, make sure that the Frontpage extensions are enabled. This is only required if you are uploading using HTTP feature (http://www.yourwebsite.com) of Frontpage. Note that if you select "Front Page Extensions" during website design, you must enable Frontpage extensions on a Linux web server also. These days, Linux web servers come with installable Frontpage extensions, and this should pose no problem for hosting on a Linux platform.

You can use almost all types of file extensions (or scripts) when using Linux web server. Commonly, the following extensions are supported:
.cgi, .html, .htm, .pl, .php, .shtml, .xml, and others.

Basically it means that you can host websites that use different types of server side scripts including .cgi, .pl, .php, and .asp (with plug-in).

Easy to Migrate from Host to Host:

A website designed to be hosted on a Linux based web server can be hosted on a Windows web server easily, where as the reverse is not always true.

Most Widely Used:

Linux/Unix based web hosting is most widely used compared to Windows based web hosting.

Scalability:

Usually, a website starts with a few pages of html and grows over a period of time to suit the customers requirements. It is preferable to design a website keeping this requirements in mind. A website designed for compatibility with a Linux/Unix based web server meets the salability requirement easily without making any site wide design changes.

On the downside, Linux based web server is not fully compatible with Microsoft technologies. If you are using any specialized applications or development platform such as .NET for your web site, it is preferable to host with a Windows based web server.