If you have finished designing your own website and you are ready to publish you might have noticed that both Unix and Linux systems are used by web hosting companies, Window is offered less commonly.

Everyone uses Microsoft Windows, in their homes, offices and schools and we are all familiar with it. It is easy to use and was designed to be this way, the same applies for considering advanced server edition and Windows Home. Because Window is so simple to use it has attracted mass appeal and this also applies to server applications.

With Windows web hosting there is no need for the programmer to have command-line. Just as with all other Microsoft programs, a simple point the mouse and click will suffice for accessing folders!

As open source operating systems both Unix and Linux are easily distributed, well documented, free source codes. Out of these two web hosting server option, Unix is the oldest and therefore has some limitations. For example it cannot run with x86 PC's. But on the whole, this is the only real difference, Linux being more modern compensates for this gap and runs with these high powered servers.

Linux is definitely the proven workhorse and there are a couple of different varieties to choose from as we see with Red Hat Linux and Mandrake Linux. They are able to easily handle large amounts of websites that receive daily hits in the millions. Unix version of these are FreeBSD and OpenBSD, and are also readily available.

Home and office PC's really do have to provide ease of use; this is not really an issue when working with web servers. Designing a site generally takes place when you are offline, and on your PC. Very advanced programming which is system-specific is another matter completely and it is when this is necessary that you notice a between working with Unix or Windows based servers.

Both these systems are able to deal with heavy traffic sites with add-ons such as email, web stats, and chat rooms, and the biggest differences really are software compatibility and price.

Windows base web hosting has to continually be purchased and re-licensed and this makes the costs more expensive. Unix offers better value for money, and offers more added value also. These plans often come with free MySQL databases, community, statistics and free email. Windows based servers on the other hand have add-ons that have to be purchased and this adds to the cost and subtracts from value.

Popular programming languages may be run by both systems and this includes java, php and perl as well as others. Active server pages will be more secure when they are hosted on the Windows server, but they will still function on Unix, although perhaps with not immediately noticeable glitches.

Third party applications and active server pages using MS SQL 2000 will more than likely benefit from using a Windows hosting plan. But before signing on the dotted line you need to make sure of all the facts. Your serviced provider will clarify any issues you have and you should be able to clear these up with the server hosting sales or technical staff.

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Article Submitted By: Dhruv Patel
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