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Linux, UNIX or Windows Software?

Among many parameters your hosting service can have, one of the most important is the operating system the server is running. The operating system determines what kind of scripts can be run on the server, what databases are supported and so on. There are three major operating system types used on servers:

Linux. Allows for running scripts written in PHP, Perl, Python and other Unix-originated languages. Usually supports MySQL and PostgreSQL databases.

Windows. Allows for running ASP scripts and utilizing .NET and other Microsoft technologies. Supports Microsoft SQL Server database.

Unix, such as Solaris or FreeBSD. Usually have similar capabilities to Linux.

If your website has only static pages (i.e. no scripts), it shouldn't matter what operating system your server has. You should probably choose Linux or Unix hosting because they are cheaper. On the other hand, if you want to use scripts or database, you should choose the operating system which supports the technologies you use.

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