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View Full Version : Linux or Windows hosting? Pros and Cons. Which is preferred?



Harold Mansfield
12-07-2010, 04:27 PM
I'm surprised that we have never had this discussion here.
Personally, I have no idea what I have. I think it is Linux. Nothing in the admin panel of my hosting account says anything about Windows.

But, I don't know the difference between the 2 or which is preferred and I know some of you have knowledge of servers and hosting, so what is the difference between the 2?

What should I be steering clients towards when they are setting up their first hosting account?

mattbeck
12-07-2010, 09:59 PM
If you don't know, it's probably Linux.

There are a lot of windows servers out there serving up web content, but most hosting companies prefer linux and most developers do as well (unless you are working on code that relies on MS products to function).

It's really about IIS vs. Apache (and/or NGINX, etc) more than the OS though.

If you can use .htaccess in your hosted accounts you're using apache or something that is emulating it.

The standard stack is really LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP).

billbenson
12-07-2010, 10:20 PM
For the small business person, Apache is almost always a better bet. Most hosts are Linux; there are far more free lance programmers that know php / mysql for development. Its cheaper. Also, most open source applications such as wordpress are php which implies Linux / Apache. Probably the most compelling reasons for windows is if there is an application you want to use that is windows based or you have a programmer that knows windows. Or if you were unlucky enough to inherit a windows web site.

There have been tons of posts on this on the web. The "real" programmers seem to concur that you can do the same things in either system. Its just a matter of practicality. Its cheaper and you have more resources for programming and development with Linux.

vangogh
12-08-2010, 12:04 PM
I prefer Linux. Both are certainly capable. If you use things like .asp, ,.net, mssql, and other Microsoft technologies then you'll probably find a Windows server easier and better to use. If you tend toward the .php, mysql, open source side of things then Linux is probably the better way to go. I've had to work with Windows servers here and there using php and mysql and while the Windows server could run the site it made some things more difficult, particularly redirection as there's no .htaccess file. You could still set up redirection, but it was more difficult and wasn't capable of the same things .htaccess was.

Given the technologies you work with I would think you'd want Linux every time. Again not to say Linux is automatically the better server. I think it's more to do with the technologies you work with that will lead your preference.