Choosing between a Windows and a Linux Dedicated Server Part 3.

If you have chosen a Dedicated Server as your choice of hosting platform, the next stage is to decide what version of operating system to use on your server. The options can be divided into 2 main rivals and then further into different versions of these rivals.

In part 1 and 2 we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each of the different operating system types. To decide which one is best for you, it depends on which of the following criteria are of the most importance to your company or your customers.

If price, reliability, security and speed are important, then the linux operating system can offer you those strengths. The cost is almost always less than an equivalent windows system and it has become the industry standard for web hosting servers, combining with apache (web server) Mysql (database server) and PHP (coding language) it makes the acronym LAMP which you may come across numerous times when investigating web servers.

If reliability, power, familiarity (for windows PC users) and scalability are more important, then windows might be the operating system of choice. The amount of capital behind the developer of windows (Microsoft) means that they are able to create powerful applications for almost any purpose that could be useful.

One of the main deciding points though is if you are familiar with either operating system, almost all companies will chose the system which their system administrators are most familiar and comfortable with or that the software they need to use will work on best.

If you need any assistance in making the choice for the operating system for your dedicated servers, give our sales team a call on 0845 203 1000.