To help you choose the best operating system (OS) for your Web site to reside on, we have developed the following guide:

First let's start with a definition of an operating system, which is the software platform on which a web server runs.

Red Hat Linux:

Linux is an excellent operating system that is well suited to meet your web hosting needs. It handles the functions of mailing, and serving up Web sites and files especially well. Additionally, there are a huge amount of free applications available on the Internet for Linux and it uses less hardware resources than Windows 2003. Whether you are a fairly experienced webmaster or new to web hosting, we recommend that you choose Red Hat Linux as your hosting platform.

Red Hat Linux is most widely used hosting platform in the world.

Microsoft Windows 2003:

Microsoft Windows 20003 server provides a suitable platform for serving up Web sites, files, and streaming media. Additionally, it integrates well with other Microsoft applications and there are a large amount of commercial applications available for this OS. We recommend you choose Windows 2003 as your hosting platform only if you are using specific applications that require Microsoft Windows to run such as Access, Cold Fusion, ASP, .Net, and Microsoft SQL.

Note: Microsoft FrontPage may be used on both the Linux and Windows platforms.

Please Note:

One of the biggest misconceptions is that you have to select the same operating system for your hosting account that you use on your own computer. That is simply not true. This means you can select Linux for your hosting account if you currently use Windows 95, 98, NT/200, or XP on your own computer. We suggest that everyone who chooses a shared hosting plan, host their Web site on Linux if they are not utilizing ASP, Coldfusion, or MSSQL 2000.

Hosting on windows servers is like the movie 'the ring'.
You're passing on a curse.
I've switched all my hosting to linux for clients. I've even switched my desktop to linux in the last years- completely.

Linux is harder. Because you don't know it.
But get this one example:
A client has a site with thousands of hand made pages (if you think this is unique, you don't know the business).
He has bad blood with some employee, and needs to take out his name and email address from all pages.
He hired someone f*rac@~##! full time to do this for 6 months!!!
I could run a sed one liner to do that in 20 seconds. My boss would charge him a hour's work- but guess what- it's still cheap and perfect.

Yeah yeah.. you can use dreamweaver regex, some other crap like that, still gotta upload.. There's tons of apps you can download for win that will do this crap.. etc etc...
But on *nix this stuff is inherent. It's part of the whole shebang, pardon my posix.

If you approach any sysadmin on Linux with this problem- they will help you out.
You can administer a win server and be a greedy bastard- or a knucklehead.
Not on *nix. Chances are someone will help you and it will be cheap.

That's just one example.

Then there's safety.. etc etc..

Please, don't anybody say linux or win hosting is a matter of choice. It's a matter of being informed or not.

For those whom state Windows Platforms are nearly in the category of "reliable" or "valable solution" is definately not that technically inclined.

I tried both windows and linux servers and opted for linux.

It's a lot easier to use

Outlaw007

I've gotta say linux Apache web server is more reliable and secure than IIS window server.

Just my two cents

linux, it never crashes its faster and more reliable to.

Sincerely,
Faizan Kabir (admin)
asmarterhost.com

i concur with all the pro-linux posts!
linux: more secure, more reliable, a real techie's OS.

I think its all about your choice. I mean if you are not gonna hit ASP.NET stick with Linux. In other words, if you require applications that need Windows Platform... only then move to Windows else stay with linux.


Usually, the hosting on linux are cheaper... more of em.. .cheaper licences.. than many microsoft.. products.

Whislt I take issue with your "Windows Bashing" you are right Linux vs Windows is more a matter of being informed than a simple choice.

Linux is secure stable reliable and free - so it should cost you less to host on Linux, but recent OEM / service provider discounts from Microsoft have made Windows a much cheaper option.

If you program using MySQL, PHP or Perl, then these are very well supported by Linux. Windows also has full support for these technologies too. Though few hosts actually bother to provide MySQL or PHP from Windows Servers.

Whilst the open source technologies like PHP and MySQL are portable to both Windows and Linux, Windows Technologies like Classic ASP and Access are not portable to Linux. (Don't be fooled by Chilisoft ASP its not the same.)
This gives Windows the edge on support for programming and database technologies.

Security - Well the debate rages my opinion is Windows is a bigger target than Linux as hackers love to expose flaws in Micro$ts technolgies, yet there is no real merit in trying to embarass Linux as its an Open Source Community Owned Project. Both Operating Systems have to patched to keep them protected against the latest security threats, but most hosts are old hands at keeping their servers and data secure. This choice comes into play when you are running your own server.

FrontPage Server Extensions, work equally well on Linux and Windows, arguably they are easier to install on Linux than Windows.

Windows' Web Server IIS is actually incredibly reliable, equally as reliable as Apache since IIS 5.0+. IIS supports self-recovery, so it can be configured to be incredibly robust. If IIS crashes it can be configured to restart itself within 30 seconds and unlike IIS 4.0 there are various process threads to protect sites from one another so even if one web application hangs it will not affect other sites on the server.

Windows bashing is really old-hat, its perpatrated by Linux converts who were, rightly dissapointed with Window NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 pre SP2. The truth is Microsoft now have Windows rivalling Linux in almost every aspect as hosting platform.

The main Advantage of Linux is that'll it run with minimal system resources, which means it can be installed on low-end or old kit with no performance problems. One thing you can guarantee about a Windows Web Server - its gotta be a new piece of kit!