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Linux is a flavor of Unix.The
following discussion gives insight into our opinions regarding which
platform should be used for virtual server hosting. For UNIX, we use a
modified version of Linux. Unlike Windows 2000, UNIX comes in many
different flavors, such as Solaris, Red Hat Linux, and FreeBSD. This
discussion examines the difference between these two operating systems
from various perspectives, all of which should be considered when
determining which platform you should use for virtual server hosting.
Important:
One of the biggest misconceptions is
that you have to run UNIX on your own computer in order for you to
host your site on UNIX platform. That is not true. Which operating
system you run on your computer is irrelevant in making your decision.
This means that if you are running Windows98 or Windows®2000 on your
computer, you can still choose UNIX.
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UNIX |
Windows |
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Ease of use |
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Reliability |
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Speed |
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Functionality |
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Price |
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Integration
with Microsoft solutions |
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Free/Open
Source Software |
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User
Friendliness
While
the consensus holds that UNIX based webhosting is more user friendly
than Windows, it is our belief that with our Control Panel's for both
the UNIX and Windows platforms make both user friendly. However, UNIX
does have some features, such as Telnet/SSH that makes it easier to
administer your webhosting account.
Stability
Without question, we feel that UNIX is far more stable than Windows in
a shared-server, or multi-user environment. Given the background of
UNIX, which dates back into the early 1960's versus Windows birth in
the 1990's, UNIX has had far more time to improve in efficiency and
stability. It is our opinion that Windows 2000 was not developed for
the multi-user, shared-server hosting environment (which can be a high
demanding environment at times) where UNIX kernal has been developed
under these conditions.
Functionality
Many
commercial applications, especially e-commerce packages, are developed
for the Windows environment. While UNIX does have commercial support
for popular application such as Real Networks G2, Miva and now
WebTrends, the history of UNIX software development is Open Source, or
GNU software (non-commercial). Therefore, many more commercial
applications for e-commerce and web development are developed for the
Windows environment. On the flip side, may open source applications
which have gained tremendous popularity, such as Perl, PHP, and mySQL
were developed for UNIX operating systems under the GNU license.
Commercial applications versus GNU software can easily distinguish
which platform should be used when considering functionality.
Our Experience
Nexus
has been working with Red Hat Linux for over 3 years now, and general
UNIX OS's including Open Source software (Slackware, Open BSD Linux,
Free BSD) for about 4 years. However, we have been working with
Windows 2000 for only 2 years now, so our experience much heavily
weighted towards UNIX, especially the Linux Operating System.
Price
Here UNIX holds a slight edge due to the fact that
the most of the software licenses are free and that it’s easier to
maintain UNIX servers than Windows®2000 servers for the same level of
reliability and performance. You will see that our hosting prices
reflect this. Unless you specifically plan to use Windows®2000
platform specific features (see below), it probably makes sense to
choose the UNIX platform.
Remarks
It is our
opinion that the Linux platform is much more suited for multi-user
functionality than the Windows platform. For clients looking to create
a simple website with little experience or dynamic features with GNU
software (Perl, PHP), we recommend a UNIX-based virtual server.
However, clients looking for custom scripting and e-commerce add-ons
for their virtual server or with high-end database or development
needs, we recommend the Windows platform.
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