Windows or Linux?
Just like your home computer, a web server needs an operating system to run.You have an option of two basic operating systems on your web host account: Windows and Linux. Microsoft Windows Server is a more advanced and generally more expensive operating system for servers. It integrates (relatively) easily with other Microsoft products and, of course, has its own way of doing things.
Linux is based on the old UNIX style software used in the early days of the Internet and created by a man named Linus Torvalds in Finland in the early 90’s.
NOTE: The history of UNIX and Linux is actually quite fascinating, although I won’t go into it here. If you’re interested you can go to http://www.unix.org/what_is_unix/history_timeline.html for a brief UNIX history and http://liw.iki.fi/liw/texts/linux-the-big-picture.html for a brief Linux history. It really is amazing though, what an army of volunteers spread all over the world can come up with in their spare time, communicating through the Internet.
Versions of Linux are called “distributions” put out by various entities that have adapted it for a specific use. The main web server program that runs on Linux is called Apache. Apache has since been adapted (ported) to run on Windows servers, but it runs best on Linux servers.
Windows is, of course, from Microsoft. Windows web hosts will probably be using Windows Server 2003, although they may still be using the older Windows Server 2000 operating system. The web server portion of Windows Server is called IIS (for Internet Information Services). IIS will not run on Linux servers.
To people visiting your site it doesn’t make any difference which operating system the server is running. It matters to you because that’s the interface you will be dealing with in setting up and running your web site.
For instance, if you use Microsoft’s FrontPage to create your site it’s a simple matter to synchronize or publish your site to a Windows server. If you have deleted a page it will automatically delete it on the server if you so choose. FrontPage will still work with a Linux server through FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and most Linux servers can install Front Page Extensions.
Linux servers use FTP to transfer files from your computer to the server. It has more add-ons available since it is open source and programmers among the general populace have been creating programs that work with Linux for years. Windows doesn’t have as many add-ons since they keep their code private, although some of the add-ons for Linux have now been ported to work on Windows servers.
Which one to use? Like everything else, it depends. Linux is generally cheaper and more flexible, but takes more knowledge and expertise to configure, especially if you plan on adding other programs to spice up your site. There’s a great deal of information on the Internet that can help, but no single place to go for support.
Many of the Internet Marketing products we’ve reviewed are designed for, and automatically assume that you are using, a Linux server.
I would recommend using a Windows server if you are building a major business site, not many smaller sites. Microsoft FrontPage in conjunction with a Microsoft server has some great features for updating hyperlinks, drag-and-drop editing and collaboration (SharePoint).
If you need to expand into a large, database driven web site there are plenty of programmers that will be able to help you.
NOTE: Many web server add-on programs are written using PHP. PHP programs will run on a Linux server, but will also run on Windows servers, as long as you are not using FrontPage Extensions. If you are using FrontPage you know what I’m talking about. If you’re not using FrontPage, you are probably better off using a Linux server.
