There are quite lot operating systems available in the market and these operating systems are also being used widely in different devices successfully. Each operating system has got its own inherent strengths. However many of these operating systems are not commonly found in the windows web hosting plans. Let us try to find out what type of operating systems is available and which is used where.
Shared Web Hosting does not give a lot of choices:
In case of Shared Web Hosting plan, it is normally the Linux operating system is used. Of course, you may get a few different distributions of Linux with some VPN. It is also possible to get Windows server if you pay certain additional fees to some best web hosting company. You have the option of installing any operating system in some virtual private network, but this is not common. Let us now discuss a few operating systems.
The UNIX OS:
Out of many modern operating systems, UNIX is the very well operating system. Though this OS had been first developed in the middle of the twentieth century, the main features and the architecture of this OS can still be found in the recent Operating systems. The features which are commonly found in the other operating system which had originated from UNIX are the multiple users, the modularity of the design and the clock based time-sharing. These features have made UNIX as the favorite OS running in web hosting servers because here many users can run independent programmes according to their choice.
The LINUX OS:
It is also known as GNU/Linux. This is because of the involvement of GNU project during the development of this software. Originally Linux was designed as an alternative to the popular UNIX OS. Later on, it got merged with the GNU project and had become an independent and fully fledged OS. As Linux is available free and open source, this OS is widely used for academic purpose. The wide use of Linux has helped its further development and this OS is widely used in web hosting services world wide.
The Linux OS is highly modular. There is small software known as Linux Kernal which handles the key functions of the hardware like the time sharing of the CPU and the memory allocation. However, all other functions of the OS right from the storage of the files, the GUI, the device drivers, etc all are independent types of software and these can be used very successfully in the website hosting servers. It is this type of modularity in Linux which has been responsible for the development of different types of distributions. Among various types of distributions, the Red Hat, the Centos and UBUNTU are very popular, while UBUNTU is considered to be the most user-friendly out of all Linux distributions.
The BSDs:
This software distribution is basically a derivative of UNIX. It was developed based on the UNIX code and is now being widely used.
The Mac Operating system:
This OS is normally used on the Mac Laptops and Desktops and is also a BSD derivative. This is also used for the Web Hosting servers. However, the use of such OS is limited to Web Hosting servers.
The Use of Windows OS:
This operating system is normally used for different Web applications. Based on the different needs of the enterprises, this OS is also used for collaboration, productivity and ERP. For e-commerce Websites, this OS is also used widely. However, if you want this OS on the Web Hosting server, you will have a pay a lot of extra charges.
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