Web hosting is required if you are going to get your website live on the Internet. You will be posed with a very serious question: should you use a Linux platform, or side with Windows? This is tough to answer when taking into account that there is much bias in the issue, but there are some things to help you decide.

Those who use Linux on their home PC are generally regarded as the black sheep of the population, as Windows has a large market share of consumer operating system markets. When it comes to web hosting, the opposite seems true: Linux has taken a large percentage of the market and for good reason! Linux has been a very stable and secure operating system over the past, and is continuing the tradition.

Linux environments also allow easy access to one of the most popular web development languages in the world, known as PHP. PHP works together with a database system, most commonly MySQL, to provide dynamic and innovative web development applications. Windows instead has ASP, which has a loyal fan base but is not as popular as PHP numbers have proven to be. ASP is quickly becoming more popular with each passing year, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to learn some basics.

The common misconception in web hosting is that you should use the same platform for your server that you do on your home computer. Although migrating to a new platform could take some time in growing accustomed to, you should know that this shouldn’t be a deciding factor if you haven’t ever had experience with Linux before and are debating using it.

Even though most like to think that Windows is unstable and insecure, this isn’t always the case. Most security holes come as a result of technology administrators not properly setting up the hosting environment. You can certainly run a very secure website on either platform, you just need to know how to cover and holes in security and how to operate your website on a day to day basis..

Typically a Windows system will perform slower than a Linux machine. In Linux you will have to install or configure most of the services you will want to use. Some Windows distributions will come with many services open and running- meaning it could degrade the server performance. Linux platforms are also more adept in performance due to their nature in lacking an extensive user interface, although this is no longer a problem with recent GUI updates.

In Conclusion

Hosting is a big topic that requires much research in choosing. If you think you need help, talk to potential hosts through live chat or email. Do keep in mind hosting plans aren’t always inexpensive, and that you may need a considerable start-up sum to get started.

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