Advantages of Linux Web Servers
By Mohan Kumar

If you need your web site to be online, you need a web hosting service to host your site. The servers used by them need an operating system (OS) to run. The two most widely used OS for web servers are Linux and windows. So which is the best? Linux based or windows based. You can’t decide on this issue by comparing your PC’s OS performance or user-friendly advantages. The OS used in your PC has nothing to do with OS used by web hosts. So just because of using user friendly windows in your personal computers, you can’t say it will do well for hosting your website too. The functions of PC’s operating system are entirely different from those of servers to host your websites. So if you are using windows running desktop PC, it’s not compulsory to have your web hosting in it too.

So when coming to web servers Linux is considered to be the best OS by many professionals. The several advantages of using Linux servers over windows are listed below.

Cost Effective : Linux operating system is an open source and therefore you get it for free with all server applications. Free availability of PERL, PHP and MySQL reduces the hosting cost effectively.

Very High Up-time : Linux servers have a very high up-time of 99.9%. So the proportion that your website will be down is very less.

Scalability : This is the most important feature for modern websites. The ages of static websites have gone and today most of the sites have high dynamic contents and it grows at a faster rate. Consider a blog or forum or social network websites, these websites have high amount of content added daily. Linux offers easy scalable options without having changes in the web design.

Portable: Websites with Linux based web host can be moved to a windows based web host but you cannot move a website from windows web hosting to Linux at all situations.

Robust and User Friendly : The robust nature of Linux is a great advantage against viruses, hackers. The steps involved in uploading and hosting your website in a Linux based web server is very easy and it’s user friendly.

If you are a professional in web development then install Linux, PHP, MySQl and apache in your PC to test your website before launching it live.

Take a look at this free e-book here on using Linux and Apache to host your website.

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