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This is probably the most asked question we receive from
potential new customers, so lets examine exactly what the
differences are ...
Firstly - 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
Windows95 to XP
on your computer, you can still choose UNIX.
The differences ...
User
Friendliness
While the consensus holds that UNIX
based hosting 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 WebShell that makes it easier to
administer your hosting 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
applications, 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. 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.
Our
Final Opinion
It is our
opinion that the Unix 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.
CLICK HERE to
Compare UNIX Plans
CLICK
HERE to Compare WINDOWS Plans
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