Linux: Right Web Hosting Choice

When it comes to choosing a host for your website there are only two contenders you need to consider, a Linux Server running Apache and a Windows Server running IIS. A general misconception among the general public is that as they are running a windows product on their home PC's then they need to use a Windows Host to host their websites. This is simply not the case and in this article we will show you why Linux Should be your first choice.

To get an idea of one of the great benefits of Linux it is probably a good idea to have a brief look at its history. In 1991 when mainstream computing was in its infancy there were 2 operating systems, UNIX and DOS. UNIX was used on the large mainframe systems and was very expensive and deliberately kept out of the reach of the home computing market. DOS had been bought for $50,000 by Bill Gates and was developed for use by the general public and via an excellent marketing campaign had found itself on nearly every home computer. A computing researcher and Professor, Andrew Tanenbaum wrote a basic operating system called MINIX so that he could teach his Students about how operating systems worked. This was made freely available.

In 1991 a copy of this was obtained by a Finnish computing student Linus Torvalds who realized he could improve it. In a fateful message to the MINIX discussion group he asked if anyone like to help him work on improving MINIX soon the there were a few people helping him improve the code, then hundreds then thousands and finally hundreds of thousands. At this point Commercial companies got involved and produced version aimed at replacing the UNIX and Windows monopolies. The way that Linux was developed leads to a number of the major benefits of the Operating System.

•Economics•Hardware Support•Security•Reliability•Performance •Configuration