Which Dedicated Server: Windows or Linux?

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Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

Dedicated server hosting gives you complete control of the server hosting your web site. You choose what runs on the server and how secure it is. Different dedicated server operating systems are available and the main two operating systems used are Linux and Windows.

Linux Dedicated Servers

These servers come with the free Operating System Linux installed on them. The main configuration setup of software on a cheap linux dedicated server is to use Apache as the web server, in addition to PHP and mySQL. With these servers, you will be given root access for control of aspects including domain and web site configuration and the conf file if running Apache web server. Linux servers are typically cheaper than the windows servers, as the operating system does not cost the service provider anything.

Windows Dedicated Servers

As the name of a Windows Server implies, this will be running a Windows Server operating system on the server. Currently, service providers are offering the newest version of the OS: Windows Server 2008. Unlike the Linux server, these are typically running IIS as the web server and SQL server for the database side. The option to run Apache on the dedicated web server is available on Windows by running a WAMP (Windows, Apache, mySql, PHP) configuration setup. On average most servers running Windows do have a higher monthly cost due to the licensing fees the service provider needs to pay for the operating system.

The owner of the server will ultimately need to decide if they would like Linux or Window on their dedicated server, as it depends on their server needs. With different needs comes different choices. Those looking for a cheap dedicated server solution will want to purchase the cheaper Linux servers. Linux servers will also be the first choice for those running PHP applications requiring a mySql database. Windows server is the only way to run .Net applications that are built to use a SQL Server database. In the end, the choice of what server you pick will be based on your own web site hosting requirements.

You will need to decide if you want a managed or unmanaged dedicated server after selecting a server operating system. If you want to handle everything including patches and configuration, you will want to go with an unmanaged server leaving all the responsibility with you, while a managed server will take care of this for you, including server backups for a lot of them.

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