Choosing: Windows or Linux Hosting
It is necessary to start with the fact that each option has its own strengths and weaknesses, its advantages and disadvantages.
It's often said that Linux is generally more secure and stable, although Linux itself doesn't exist, only in its many variants. Linux users sometimes reach the point of fanaticism in their support of their favorite operating system. The strength of their conviction can be astounding, but it shouldn't be the sole basis for believing they're right. On the other hand, the average Linux user knows more about computers than the average person, so they're likely to know what they're talking about.
On the other hand, Windows doesn't seem to have many true advocates, or they're simply not as well-received. This may be explained by Microsoft's numerous lawsuits, which have affected its image and, consequently, the image of its products.
Desktop and Server Stability
Many people taking their first steps into the "wonderful world of hosting" assume that if their desktop computer or the computer they'll be using to create web pages runs Windows, they should look for Windows hosting. This is absolutely wrong. Pages can be created on Windows and hosted on Linux, and vice versa. There are no problems with this.
There's also a common misconception and overgeneralization that Windows is just Windows and that it's overly bloated, unstable, and dangerous. However, there's no such thing as Windows. There are many different flavors of Windows, and they're all different.
Windows XP is a major step forward in terms of stability, and the main reason for this is that it is based on Windows 2000, an operating system designed for servers. The stability of server versions of Windows significantly exceeds that of desktop versions (95, 98, and ME). This means that Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 aren't just desktop operating systems; they're in a different league.
Quality of performance
When comparing Windows and Linux, it has often been noted that Linux handles a large number of processes simultaneously much better than Windows, and that the stability level of Windows degrades more quickly as the number of processes running on the machine increases.
Ultimately, this means that Linux can be used to squeeze more out of a server, but in the hands of a knowledgeable system administrator, any server will perform very well, whether it's Windows or Linux.
Linux is free, while everything Windows-related involves money.
But perhaps most importantly, the Linux code is open and thrives thanks to the work of many volunteer programmers. The volume of their efforts and the quality of their work are truly commendable.
So what should you be looking for?
The decision about which hosting to choose—Windows or Linux—shouldn't be based on myths, but on actual needs. More often, the decision should be based on knowledge of you and/or your staff/business partners/friends, what you plan to do with your website, or what you want to learn.
Basic, static web pages are written using HTML (HyperText Markup Language), which is interpreted by the browser as web pages in the form we see them, containing text, tables, images, and more. Pages written exclusively using HTML can be hosted on any web site, regardless of operating system.
However, dynamic, interactive web pages are a different story, and they require powerful programming languages. And don't confuse the terms "dynamic" and "animated." Web pages can contain animated objects, such as GIF files, but that doesn't make them dynamic. Examples of dynamic pages include forum pages, e-commerce sites, and other sites where you send information to the server, and the server stores this information and acts differently depending on the information you send.
Examples include dynamic page programming: Perl, PHP, ASP, Python, Java, and others. For the purposes of this article, PHP and ASP can be characterized as "special," due to their popularity and other factors. PHP is open-source and freely distributed, while ASP is a Microsoft product.
While the PHP developers were taking the steps necessary to make PHP usable on Windows machines, Microsoft obviously (and not surprisingly) found reasons to make ASP so that it could only be used on Windows machines.
Other companies and individuals are working to port ASP to machines running other operating systems, but while their efforts are commendable and they have already made significant strides toward this goal, they have only partially solved the problem. Currently, full use of ASP's features and capabilities is only possible on machines running Windows.
One cross-platform ASP attempt was Sun Java System Active Server Pages. Another was Apache-asp.org. Since Apache is the preferred web host for Linux, the creation of APACHE-ASP is a reasonable move.
As I mentioned earlier, all ASP and ASP.NET features can currently only be used on Windows machines. Therefore, if you plan to use ASP, you're better off using Windows hosting.
PHP
PHP was developed by open source supporters, most of whom clustered around Linux. Linux, Apache, PHP, and MySQL are well-known and well-functioning systems.
Luckily, PHP also works very well on the WINDOWS-IIS (Internet Information Services) platform, which means that PHP scripts will also work on a Windows machine (although some changes to the scripts may be required).
PHP quickly gained popularity and became renowned for its speed, free availability, and power. Add to this the large number of PHP scripts (many of which are freely available) and the abundance of information on virtually every topic related to PHP, and you'll understand why more and more users are choosing PHP.
Selection process
Using Windows as a hosting platform has at least one major advantage: the ability to utilize all the features of ASP and ASP.NET. If you plan to use ASP because your employees know it or because it's more suitable for your specific tasks, then Windows hosting is the best choice right now.
The good thing is that PHP isn't designed exclusively for Linux and works quite well on Windows. If you decide later to use PHP for something, you can do so without any problems—provided, of course, that your hosting provider has PHP installed on your server.
Returning to Linux: although you won't be able to take full advantage of ASP right now, this operating system is often used on the web. It's renowned for its stability, and that means a lot. While Windows instability, often rumored, is a much-discussed issue, Linux's stability is practically undeniable.
Price and availability
Although Linux is known to be free, and in fact, it is, there is debate about the overall cost of ownership when using a web operating system. Some studies have shown that Windows can be cheaper to use than Linux at certain times and under certain conditions. Unsurprisingly, these studies were sponsored, one way or another, by Microsoft. Of course, there have also been counter-studies, with directly contradictory results. There's a war going on out there, you know?
If you want to know more about this, you can try searching Google for the phrase "windows linux cost of ownership".
While the "big guys" boast about their user numbers and are happy to extrapolate, in the real world, for one reason or another, Linux hosting is usually cheaper than Windows hosting, meaning a dedicated server running Linux will cost less than the exact same one running Windows. With shared hosting, this means that by choosing Linux, you can get more web space and transfer more data for the same price.
It's worth noting that most hosting providers offer Linux-based hosting plans, so it may be much easier to find a reputable hosting company that runs on Linux. This doesn't mean that few hosting providers offer Windows-based hosting. That's not true! There are thousands of hosting providers worldwide, and Windows-based hosting offers are substantial. It's just that Linux-based hosting offers are significantly more numerous.
So what now?
Currently, our company uses Linux due to its renowned stability, reliability, security, and (why not mention) low cost. However, in the future, we plan to install a Windows-based server.