When you are choosing web hosting, one of the first things you need to choose is the operating system. If you are a techie, this is probably an easy choice, but if you don’t have technical background, then the very question “Operating system?! What is this?” will pop up in your head.

What is an Operating System?

There are many definitions of what an operating system is but since you are not a techie, you will hardly be willing to delve into the technical details. To put it into layman’s terms, an operating system is a piece of software you need in order to install applications and to access the underlying hardware.

Hardware is nothing without software to manage it and this is why you need software (i.e. the operating system) to tell the hardware what to do. On the other hand, an operating system doesn’t perform tasks an application can and this is why you need to install applications within the operating system in order to perform tasks such as browsing the Net, logging into your web host, etc. It is true that most operating systems come bundled with applications but still applications are separate from the operating system.

Popular Web Hosting Operating Systems?

There are hundreds of operating systems in use but the most popular ones are Windows and Linux. As an end-user, you are probably already familiar with Windows because you are probably using it on your computer. As far as web hosting is concerned, Windows hosting doesn’t use exactly the same version of Windows that you may be running on your computer; but still both versions are very similar.

The second popular web hosting operating system is Linux. You might have heard about it but probably you have never used it. Unlike Windows, Linux is primarily a server operating system (though there are many Linux distributions that are intended as a desktop operating system). In addition to Windows and Linux, there are other web hosting operating systems, such as UNIX=, MAC, HP varieties, or Solaris, but we won’t discuss those here.

Is Linux Hosting or Windows Hosting Best?

Usually when you have to choose the operating system for your web hosting, the choice is between Windows hosting and Linux hosting. Both Windows hosting and linux hosting have their advantages and disadvantages and it is not possible to recommend one of them as the better option. In some situations Linux hosting is the way to go, while in others Windows hosting is the better alternative.

For a novice, who is familiar with neither Linux hosting, nor Windows hosting, Linux hosting could be a bit more difficult to master. However, once you pass the initial stages, you will see that Linux administration is not terribly difficult.

Actually, the biggest deciding factor between Linux hosting versus Windows hosting are your applications. There are applications, which can be run only under Windows/Linux and if your applications fall into this group, you have no choice but to go for Linux hosting/Windows hosting.

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