The following discussion gives insight into which platform should be used for virtual server hosting. 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.

Stability
Without question, the 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. 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.

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.

Conclusion
For those looking to create a simple website with little experience or dynamic features with GNU software (Perl, PHP), a UNIX-based virtual server is recommended. However, those looking for custom scripting and e-commerce add-ons for their virtual server or with high-end databasing or development needs, we recommend the Windows platform.