Choosing Your First Linux Web Host

Choosing your first Web host is an important decision. You will, hopefully, have a long relationship with whatever host you choose. To make a decision, first you need to decide that what you need and then visit the sites of several hosting providers and evaluate what they are offering in regarding your requirements. If you choose wisely you should get good value for your money, consistency and prompt well-informed support. Get a Good Linux Web Host at OnSmart.net

Linux and its predecessor UNIX and Windows 2000 and its close relate Windows NT are types of operating systems that web servers use to do its operations.

In most of the cases Linux Web Hosting Account is recommended because Linux is considered as more reliable, stable and more universally compatible with any operating system. This is due to the functionality and speed of the Linux operating platform. Without any doubt, Linux is far more stable than Windows in a shared-server, or multi-user environment. Get a Good Linux Web Host at OnSmart.net (http://www.onsmart.net )

On the other hand, if you know that you will be using Microsoft applications extensively, or you plan on developing extensively using FrontPage, especially FrontPage 2002, MS SQL, ASP.NET or if you are looking for E-commerce add- ons or you will be using high-end databases then Windows/NT Hosting is the right choice for you. But if you are looking for universal compatibility regardless of the operating system the end user has, Linux has the ability to run a much wider variety of custom scripts and programs than Windows 2000/NT, and it offers easier, lower-cost set-up for advanced applications such as CGI scripts, databases.

Under Linux web hosting operating system, there is, database, server software and gathering of coding. Linux is the most preferred and demanded operating system because of its features and vigorous environment and it is the next best alternative to Microsoft and UNIX operating system. Linux is widely used and chosen worldwide due to its permanent network and server operating system. Linux operating system and APACHE web server, MYSQL database, PHP server coding applications are clustered under one roof that is Linux web hosting and for this, it is also known as LAMP server. The most reliable web hosting under web based applications is the Linux, and Apache is grabbing the market of Microsoft servers according to a survey over million of sites. Get a Good Linux Web Host at OnSmart.net

Advantages of Choosing Linux Based Web Host

Following are the advantages of using Linux based web server compared to Windows based web server:

1. Stable:

Linux/Unix operating systems has traditionally been believed to be very stable and robust. A web site housed on a Linux operating system will have very high up-time (of the order of 99.9%). Of course, other factors such as power supply, network admin skills, and network load etc. also matter when it comes to maintaining the system uptime.

2. Low cost of ownership:

The Linux OS comes free of cost (or at very insignificant cost, usually cost of distribution). Also, it has full fledged server, and desk top applications that comes free along with the OS. These server applications (such as FTP, Web Server, DNS Server, File Server etc.) being free, are also very stable.

3. Ease of use:

When it comes to web hosting, it is easy to host on Linux web servers. The process of uploading and hosting is almost same for both Linux and Windows web servers. If you want to use a Windows based tool such as Front Page for uploading a web site on to a Linux based web server, make sure that the Front Page extensions are enabled. This is only required if you are uploading using HTTP feature of Front Page. Front Page also makes it possible to upload a web site using FTP. Note that if you select “Front Page Extensions” during web site design, you must enable Front Page extensions on a Linux web server also.
You can use almost all types of file extensions or scripts when using Linux web server. Commonly, the following extensions are supported: .cgi, .html, .htm, .pl, .php, .shtml, .xml, and others. Basically it means that you can host web sites that use different types of server side scripts including .cgi, .pl, .php, and .asp with plug-in. Get a Good Linux Web Host at OnSmart.net

4. Easy to move between hosts:

A web site designed to be hosted on a Linux based web server can be hosted on a Windows web server easily, where as the reverse is not always true.

Most widely used: Linux/Unix based web hosting is most widely used compared to Windows based web hosting.

5. Scalability:

A web site is dynamic. Usually, a web site starts with a few pages of html and grows over a period of time to suit the customer’s requirements. It is preferable to design a web site keeping these requirements in mind. A web site designed for compatibility with a Linux/Unix based web server meets the scalability requirement easily without making any site wide design changes.

On the downside, Linux based web server is not fully compatible with Microsoft technologies. If you are using any specialized applications or VB for development of your web site, it is preferable to host with a Windows based web server.