Linux Platform Hosting

Linux is the creation of a programmer from Finland named Linus Torvalds who created an operating system very similar to Unix and which has now become widely available and today, this operating system is being developed and also supported by a huge number of developers from all parts of the world. The Linux operating system is really an Open Source Software that essentially means that anyone can look at its source code and also modify it, if required. So, with Linux you get a safe as well as pretty stable operating system and if any programming errors or security problems occur, they are quickly fixed by those who have developed it. Another big advantage to using Linux is that it is available free of cost and it also does not require fancy CPUs or internal memory as is the case with other operating systems such as Windows.

With such advantages to be had, you will find that Linux web hosting is comparatively cheaper than Windows web hosting and because web hosting companies don’t have high costs to pay, they can pass on the benefits to the customer. It should thus not come as any big surprise to learn that today it is Linux and also other closely related UNIX operating systems that have cornered the major share of the market for web hosting. With regard to Linux web hosting, one often hears of the term LAMP which is an abbreviation in which L stands for Linux, A means Apache, M is the first letter of MySQL, and P is the first letter for PHP or Perl. So, when you think of Apache you would be thinking of the web server itself that sends your web pages to various browsers of those who are visiting your web pages.

Unlike Windows that uses SQL, Linux web hosting requires use of MySQL which is a database program that though it once had quite limited functioning as compared with ORACLE and also MS SQL, has improved in the recent times and become extended so that it can offer stiff competition to the more established databases being used today. And, also unlike Windows that uses Active Server Pages for scripting, Linux web hosting makes use of PHP or Perl for programming your web sites to retrieve information from the MySQL database and is also useful for interacting with visitors to your site.

However, even in spite of its low cost, Linux does have one major drawback to it and that is that it needs having very special knowledge to manage it which is far removed from the ease with which people can use Windows. One solution that has been found to get around this problem is having a number of programs created that have been installed for making bulletin boards or even a system to manage content which requires a wizard which is freely available on Linux platforms. So, users have to make a choice between lower costing solutions such as Linux and the rather complicated way of managing it.