Description:
Just like Mac OS and Windows are different (but do the same things), Linux (and Unix) and Windows do the same things differently.
There are certain online applications that will only run on Linux/Unix environments and others that will only run on Windows. ASP and ASP.NET, two programming languages (created by Microsoft) will only run on Windows computers.
Deciding on which operating system to go with depends on your needs.
If you need to support Microsoft products such as ASP, MS Access, or VBScript, then Windows hosting would be better. Furthermore, if you are comfortable with IIS and do not have the time to understand how UNIX works, Windows hosting would again be a better choice.
There are some things to remember.
First of all, just because you use Windows at home does not mean you should use Windows hosting. The two are completely different, and having a Windows system at home will not affect your ability to communicate with a UNIX server.
Secondly, Linux is much more common with web hosts due to its superior stability and because it is free. Since it is free, Linux hosting is usually cheaper than Windows. Just because it's free does not mean it's not as good - Linux is an excellent product too.
Read Web host reviews (www.makedotsimple.com)
Lot of sites provide quite extensive reviews of web hosting sites
In fact we are in process of creating one of those web sites for community which is under development and will be launched soon www.makedotsimple.com
Here is the URL
http://www.makedotsimple.com/ ( Coming soon currenctly under development)
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