Usually when working in web development there will be two types of operating systems for a web server, Linux and Windows. When you hear Linux Server and Windows Server, you are just hearing the various operating systems the server will be running. This can be a huge deal if you have some expectations. Generally you will have one key question, which one is superior? There in truth isn’t an answer to this. It is very much on the developer and what he is trying to achieve.
Operating System Universal Features
There are a small amount of common features both Windows and Linux will offer. One is how you transfer your files. Both Windows and Linux support FTP access to edit, delete or transfer files. Both operating systems can provide some of the same file types. HTML (.html) and JavaScript (.js) are both usually used on both platforms. You can also run CGI in Linux and Windows. CGI is an application that is alike to writing in Perl or C#. This can help with forms and dynamic content, generally used with shopping carts. MYSQL Database and PHP can run on both Linux and Windows, but these two web development languages are more familiar on Linux.
Linux Operating System Server
Linux Web Hosting is almost certainly the most used server operating system in the market. Most developers love Linux for the reason that it is open source and will support PHP and MySQL absolutely. The plus point side of all of these great features is that Linux, PHP and MySQL is all FREE! They cost nothing and are all open source applications.
PHP and MySQL can be coded together to make anything probable. PHP can run on different platforms like Windows, but most of the time it is ran through Linux. They use the similar tags and attributes as HTML, but you can incorporate functions and scripts to be ran on the server side. Making Dynamic pages that will pull data, insert data, or modify data in a MySQL table. PHP can also support various tables such as Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, and Generic ODBC.
Windows Operating System Server
Should you go with Windows? It in fact matters on what coding language you are going to work out with and what your end goal of your mission is. Most Web Developers will code PHP and MySQL on a Linux Server. Some have moved to ASP coding language that is only supported on a Windows Server. ASP coding is a very worldwide coding language.
Windows Web Hosting has become increasingly famous as web developers look into ASP. ASP is a server coding language that is only supported on a Windows Server. ASP stands for Active Server Pages which is a free section with Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It can also be found in the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack.
ASP coding language is very much like a HTML file. This will contain various tabs and attributes as HTML or XML. What makes ASP different from HTML is that the request is read through the server and executes the ASP function or script of the file. ASP can run coding languages that are alike to computer programming languages. ASP can link to different database languages.
Security Issues and Concerns
One sudden thought about both Linux and Windows servers is which is superior for security. Security is one of your major concerns when having a website and especially when you have an ecommerce store. The sad thing about this topic is that it is an argument that will never be solved. It all comes down to if the hacker wants in or not. They both have security problems. The best way to put off anything from happening is having a good web administrator or a good web hosting company. Having one or both of these will keep your mind at ease.
Which Web Operating System is Superior?
Watching at some of the features, neither is better than the other. There are simply some advantages and disadvantages of both. Discovering what your website needs is the decision maker. Windows or Linux can both be used for your benefit. Some web developers love to use one or the other for the reason that of what they are used to. Some web developers simply use one or the other because of the coding language they will be using. Keep in mind there are pros and cons to both, but a website is made by the web developer, not the operating system.