Linux and Windows Web Hosting platform, both of them have their advantages and disadvantages. Following are some of the important points which you need to kept in mind before choosing your hosting platform.

Security :

• Most webmasters thinks that windows servers are more vulnerable than Linux servers but this is not true. Security issues are responsibility of administrator rather than OS. Even Linux server can be hacked if not handled properly.

• If you have latest updated security patches and software for your server and is monitored round the clock by your administrator then there should not be any issue for your server so for security issues look for your server management staff rather them OS.

Access :

• Both Linux and Windows Web Hosting plans offer you server access via FTP. Linux offers you SSH and telnet access whereas Windows hosting supports telnet and RPD for accessing server.

Databases :

• Microsoft owned databases such as MS Access, MSSQL 2000, MSSQL 2005 etc are supported on Windows Hosting Plans where as MySQL is suited for Linux Hosting, although MySQL can be used with Windows Hosting too.

Cost :

• Comparatively cost of Linux hosting is pretty much cheaper then Windows Web hosting. As Linux is open source and is free thus overall cost for Linux hosting gets reduced so it’s most preferred hosting platform. There was a time where operating systems made a big difference. Currently, most platforms are supported on both Linux and Windows.

Server Side Includes the follwing things:-

Custom Error Pages
Password Protected Directories
Secure Shell Access
Seprate .htaccess for customizing your Apache behaviour
FTP server and as many FTP accounts as you may reasonably require
Subdomains
Access to RAW logs
Awstats Statistics Program
Webalizer Statistics Program
Domain Parking
POP3 and SMTP support for all email accounts
Complete Web based Email Management
Control panel to manage your hosting account
Unlimited forwards aliases and autoresponders
IMAP based Webmail
External POP3 retrieval, Calendar, AddressBook and SpellChecker in WebMail
Shopping Cart [available on request]
Dedicated IP [available on request]
Shared SSL