Windows Hosting vs Linux Hosting
The Web hosting industry, in a sense, is a buffet table filled with a lot to choose from. In recent years, to host websites in two operating system servers, namely Linux and Windows: This sort of became a dilemma for Web developers and business owners who want to reach wider audiences via the Internet. To tell which of these two operating system servers is the wheat from the chaff depends on what works best for the objectives of a Web developer or business owner for his or her websites.
The reasons for the growing demand of Web hosting packages using these two operating systems vary from customer to customer. One apparent similarity is that both are largely available to website owners at an affordable rate. Although it’s been said that Linux has a more competitive price than the other, there are those who consider the price of a Windows server to be worth it.
There are of course other OS server platforms that a Web hosting provider can use to operate the backend of their Web servers, but Web servers for these are uncommon, and it wouldn’t be likely for you to end up hosting your own site using these Web servers. An example of this is a Macintosh Web server. There are also Unix Web servers. However, compared to Linux Web servers, Unix Web servers are not as common and a bit expensive. In addition, Unix hardware works only with a specific setup or platform. Aside from the price of both Linux and Windows, they can work with Macintosh and Unix, especially since Linux systems are similar to Unix platforms.
As far as accessing the Web server running on any of these two OS platforms (Linux and Windows), they both offer FTP access. FTP is also known as File Transfer Protocol, and this works in the same way as an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) that defines and transmits messages from a server to an Internet user’s browser. It also works the same way as an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) in terms of transmitting email messages and attachments from a server to a user’s browser.
It is only Linux that offer both Telnet and SSH access. Telnet can be accessed through a Windows Web server, but only a number of Web hosting companies offer such access features. Telnet or terminal emulation is a Unix- based command program where a command is entered and executed to establish communications between the server and the browser. Such a program would make it appear as if these commands were directly entered from the server console.
SSH or Secure Shell is a program that also works with commands entered from a remote machine to communicate with another machine, and these commands are encrypted over the network to avoid IP spoofing , DNS spoofing and IP source routing.
In terms of developing Web pages, both Windows and Linux hosting servers can be used with HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), which is the most common language used to develop static Web pages or simple text rich pages. JavaScript support is also implemented in these Linux and Windows servers, which is another language used for creating a Web page with different sets of functionalities like
dynamic and interactive content features.
Other programming languages that can run on both of these OS servers, mostly on Linux servers though, are Perl and CGI. Perl or Practical Extraction and Report Language is a language that is used mainly to create dynamic forms on your website using CGI or Common Gateway Interface, another language that enables data to be transferred and returned via the Web. Perl and CGI work together, along with the server to bring your Web pages to your viewers.
There are also server side scripts that work on these OS servers. These are known as such because they use the databases available in the server. These scripts are mostly developed using Coldfusion, ASP and PHP.
Coldfusion works on both OS hosting servers. ASP is more likely to be used on Windows and PHP with Linux. Coldfusion is a program toolset that integrates a Web page in HTML with a server database to make its content dynamic. For example, when a user enters a telephone number in a text field provided by a Web page, Coldfusion will query the associated database to return the name of the establishment that corresponds to the telephone number entered by the user.
ASP or Application Service Provider is a third party management and distribution company that provides application services. PHP or Hypertext Preprocessor is an embedded scripting language that works like CGI, but finds compatibility with many databases and can communicate across networks, such as HTTP.
Web hosting providers using any OS type server may choose between my SQL and Access. mySQL is a relational management database system that requires a number of assumptions to relate data with each other and extract it. This database can be found on any of the OS type servers.
An Access Database can only be used by Windows Web servers, since it was developed by Microsoft. Access is a database embedded with parts or interfaces that include forms, tables, reports and queries, as well as modules and macros. These parts contain data presented the way these interfaces are designed to function. For example, if you choose to embed data into a table interface, then the data is presented in tables based on a sub-function that was added to the table interface.
Windows and Linux Web hosting servers both have vulnerabilities when security is concerned. However, most of the security features that you will get and would have to make sure of should be provided by the administrative, management and technical departments of the Web hosting company. Most OS server security suites are limited, unless you add value to it, by shelling out more money for purchasing additional security programs. That is why it is also best for you to choose a hosting provider based on the security measures that they implement into their data centers and Web servers, instead of relying
on the Web server Operating System’s level of security.