Linux Community Magazine

Linux Hosting Vs Windows Hosting

Linux hosting traces its birth from 'Linux', an open-source computer operating system based upon the concept of free software available to anyone to freely use, improve, modify and even redistribute. Windows hosting, on the other hand, relates to Windows operating system wherein the software is proprietary item of Microsoft.

Since being an open-source operating system, Linux hosting tends to be cheaper than Windows hosting. Besides, Linux hosting is considered as one of the main pillars of the LAMP server-software combination - Linux, Apache, MySQL and Php/Perl/Python. Popularity of Linux hosting among web developers can be judged from the fact that a great many open-source software have been created and are being continuously created for free use among discerning web enthusiasts.

Whether one chooses Linux hosting or Windows hosting will to a great extent depend on what the webmaster proposes to do with his website. Here is a quick rundown of both Linux hosting and Windows hosting.

Linux Hosting

Linux hosting is a good choice if you consider that you have perpetual options of using open-source software for your hosting needs. Linux hosting would mean that the operating system is fully compatible with PHP, which is steadily becoming the most popular programming language.

It is important to remember that Linux is a breeding ground of practicing programmers all over the globe and innumerable applications are being authored, re-written and tested all the time. What this means in simple terms is Linux hosting will always keep the door open to let in fresh air of new discoveries. For an avid user, nothing beats Linux hosting in this aspect.

The other advantage with Linux hosting is that it is cheap. Why? Since most application software are free to install and use, the hosting cost is reduced to only maintenance of servers. Since proprietary software are not installed, many overhead expenses are avoided in case of Linux hosting. This enables hosting providers to pass on the cost-advantage to its customers of Linux hosting.

Here are some examples of popular open-source application software, mostly in PHP, that can be easily used in Linux hosting.

Ecommerce Shopping Cart : OS Commerce, Zen-CartContent Management System : Drupal, PHP-Nuke, MamboBlog : Wordpress, Nucleus CMSPhoto Gallery : 4Images, Coppermine

Windows Hosting

Windows hosting makes use of Microsoft's proprietary Windows software for the host server. In contrast with Linux hosting, Windows hosting allows integration primarily with Microsoft's own products and services. For example, if you plan dynamic web content, you have to use ASP (Active Server Pages) or the advanced ASP.NET as your programming language, both created by Microsoft to be linked to SQL databases.

Interestingly, if you choose MySQL as your database, you may opt for either Linux hosting or Windows hosting, but in case your choice for database is MS Access, your option is only Windows hosting.

Windows hosting has limited support for CGI / Perl, so if your favorite scripts are in Perl, it has to be Linux hosting for you. On the other hand, good news for FrontPage users is that though it is essentially a proprietary Microsoft-owned software application, many Linux hosting do support FrontPage extensions.

There is an argument that the user interface for Windows hosting is much simpler between the two. However, of late Linux hosting too has improved on this score.

Coming to cost analysis, Windows hosting is costly not only because of proprietary software, but also due to the fact that Windows servers as such are costly, compared to servers used for Linux hosting.

Summing Up

Glossing over, what emerges is that it is the purpose of your website and its future plan that are the determining factors between choosing Linux hosting and Windows hosting. To be sure, all serious hosting providers will, in varying combination, offer a choice of both Windows hosting and Linux hosting.

Many people, especially newcomers, when they register their domain names, are convinced to sign up for a hosting account with the company that registered their domain name. That could be godaddy.com, yahoo.com or any number of other domain name registering companies. That's really unfortunate, because the hosting services those people usually get don't generally meet the requirements of an online entreprenuer. Those hosting accounts just lack the functionality that you really need to promote your business.

Here's what happens - the domain name registering companies will make you an offer of a low level hosting plan. Since the customers that are registering the domain names are usually beginners, they aren't aware of all the hosting choices that are readily available elsewhere. They think that just because the company they're dealing with can register domain names, they must have the best hosting too.

To make a long story short, people that buy into the hosting that's offered when they register their domains are usually disappointed once they get started with their new online business. Although they got what seemed like a low price, they'll find out later, when they compare it to other offers, that it really wasn't such a good deal.

But that's only part of the problem. As they become more and more involved in running their new online business, they discover that there may be some special software that they want to run on their website. Perhaps it's a shopping cart or maybe a content management system. When they look at the requirements of the software and compare those requirements to their hosting account, they'll see that their hosting account won't support the new software. You see, most marketing related software will use PHP or mySQL databases. If your web hosting account doesn't support PHP and mySQL, you're just out of luck.

Of course, these customers can go back to their hosting provider, who will explain to them that the features required for support of the new software are available to them, but they'll have to 'upgrade' their hosting account. And the upgrade isn't free, by the way. Their original hosting may have cost only $7.95 a month, but the new, upgraded hosting will cost them $25 or $30 a month. Now, all of the sudden, that great hosting deal doesn't seem so great anymore.

Don't waste your time and money with 'bargain' web hosting that won't do the job.

Another mistake is trying to run your business with free hosting. First of all, if you're looking for free web hosting because you're not willing to spend a small amount of money for your own web hosting account, you might as well just give up right now. If you want to do everything for free, you're not looking for a real business, you're looking for a hobby.

Usually, when you go with free hosting, your website URL will end up being something like "/18987/~parkavenue/1793" If your only interest is in having a place on the web to display your family photos, maybe the free hosting is right for you. But if you're trying to run a business, the free hosting can be a big handicap. For one thing, the URL doesn't look very professional.

And the free hosting companies tend to display their own advertising banners on the pages of your website. How does that look to your potential customers? Just imagine that if you're trying to operate a family oriented business and when prospects visit your website, banners advertising "Adult Chat Rooms" are on your pages.

Types of web hosting - Primarily, there are 2 different types of web hosting. One is Microsoft Windows based and the other is Linux/Unix based. My personal recommendation is to stay away from the Windows based hosting. I've had friends that went with Windows hosting, and then later found out that much of the software they wanted to run wasn't compatible with the Windows server. Most all web based software that is used for marketing purposes is designed to run on Linux servers, so I wouldn't recommend anything other than Linux based hosting.

Now that we've established the need for Linux based hosting and that you shouldn't get hosting from the same place you registered your domain, the question is - Where do you get hosting?

I'm going to let you in on a little secret - all those banner ads and email messages you probably see pitching hosting deals - IGNORE THEM. The absolute best hosting I've seen is available at dirt cheap prices on Ebay. Yes, Ebay, the online auction.

Just go to and search for "web hosting reseller" By getting a reseller's hosting account, you'll get all the hosting you'll ever need. Here's how it works - A reseller's hosting account gives you the ability to sell hosting accounts to other people. One of the benefits of a reseller account is that you can usually host an unlimited number of domains.

Right now you may be thinking this isn't for you because you're not interested in selling hosting to other people. You just want hosting for your own business. That's OK, you don't need to sell hosting with the reseller's account. You can just use it for yourself. You can use it to host the new domain that you recently registered and then, later on, if you register more domain names, you can host those also - without paying any more money for hosting.

I bought a hosting reseller's account on Ebay about 3 years ago. It's full featured, reliable, and the service and support is great. I pay $139 a year and I currently have about 95 domains hosted. Do the math - that works out to a little over a dollar per year for hosting that has everything I need. I think that's a pretty good deal.

If you don't want to get a reseller's account, you can get by even cheaper. I have another hosting account I bought at Ebay that only hosts a single domain, but it only costs 75 cents a month. This 75 cent account supports PHP, mySQL, has unlimited space and bandwidth, unlimited email accounts and just about everything else you could think of.

I strongly recommend that you check out the hosting offers on Ebay before you make any other commitments. Here are the features you want to make sure your hosting has -

1) Linux based web server2) CPANEL admin control. This is the web based admin where you can check traffic stats, setup mySQL databases, setup email accounts and a whole lot more3) Fantastico - This is an installation aid that's really handy to have. It allows you to automatically install several high powered software applications with just a single mouse click. Want a WordPress blog? Click and you have it, ready to roll. Want an online forum - same deal, click and it's there. Catalog and shopping cart - You guessed it, click and you'll have it.

It goes without saying that you should check the seller's feedback on Ebay before you make any commitment. See what other customers have to say about the service. You want to make sure you're dealing with someone that's reputable.

HistoryAcer was founded by Stan Shih (), his wife Carolyn Yeh, and a group of five others as Multitech in 1976, headquartered in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. The company was renamed Acer in 1987. It began with eleven employees and US$25,000 in capital. Initially, it was primarily a distributor of electronic parts and a consultant in the use of microprocessor technologies, but over time it emerged as a PC manufacturer. Acer began its foray into laptops with the purchase of Texas Instruments' mobile PC division in 1997.In 2000, Acer spun off its manufacturing operations as Wistron Corporation, to focus on marketing of their core brand. Acer increased worldwide sales while simultaneously reducing its labor force by identifying and using marketing strategies that best utilized their existing distribution channels. By 2005, Acer employed a scant 7,800 people worldwide. Revenues rose from US$4.9 billion in 2003 to US$11.31 billion in 2006. Acer's North American market share has slipped over the past few years, while in contrast, the company's European market share has risen.On 27 August 2007, Acer announced plans to acquire its US-based rival Gateway Inc. for US$710 million. Acer's chairman, J.T. Wang, stated that the acquisition "completes Acer's global footprint, by strengthening our United States presence." In January 2008, Acer announced that it had acquired a controlling interest of 75% of Packard Bell.In 2009 Acer acquired: Eten (aziend), eMachines and 29.9% of Olidata. Operations AustraliaThe Australian subsidiary of Acer is Acer Computer Australia (ACA). The subsidiary was established in 1990, and is currently Australia's third largest personal computer vendor, behind Hewlett-Packard Australia and Dell Australia and New Zealand. Acer Computer Australia has Australia's highest overall market share in notebook PC and tablet PC sales. The company is also Australia's leading PC vendor in government and education markets. Acer Computer Australia has 48 0 employees as of 2006. IndiaAcer's subsidiary in India is Acer India (Pvt) Limited, and was incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Acer Computer International, Ltd. in 1999. It is a notable vendor in key segments such as education, desktop computers and low profile notebooks for education purposes. Its headquarters are in Bangalore, India. Europe, Middle East and AfricaAcer sells laptops in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. North AmericaAcer America Corporation, headquartered in San Jose, California, is a member of the Acer Group. Acer's R&D, engineering, manufacturing and marketing operations in the United States and Canada are handled by Acer America. In September 1990, Acer acquired Altos Computer Systems, one of the top manufacturers of multi-user and networked UNIX computer systems for commercial markets. In February 1997, Acer acquired Texas Instruments Mobile Computing business, including the award-winning TravelMate and Extensa notebook lines, making Acer the fourth-leading notebook manufacturer in the United States. Acer America's Canadian office, in Mississauga, Ontario, handles repair of Acer, Gateway, and E-Machine Notebooks and Desktop PCs for Eastern Canada. The repair facility in Temple, Texas handles many service oriented functions for North America. Acer owns Gateway, eMachines and Packard Bell brands in North America. Acer and LinuxAcer has stated that it will be pushing Linux aggressively on its new laptops and notebooks. They are already heavily promoting Linux for its low cost netbook range put out in late 2008, but senior staff have said that Acer will also push Linux on its laptops as well. Acer has already started selling Linux in its Media PC business. Linux support for older Acer laptops is still variable due to the use of a variety of unsupported chipsets.[citation needed] ProductsAcer Aspire 5600 NotebookAcer Aspire 3610 NotebookAcer Aspire 5520 NotebookAcer Aspire 4520 NotebookAcer Aspire OneD esktopsAcer Aspire seriesAcer Predator seriesAcer Veriton seriesNotebooksAcer TravelMate seriesAcer Gemstone seriesTablet PC seriesAcer Aspire seriesAcer Aspire Timeline seriesAcer Extensa seriesAcer Ferrari series (CPUs: Mobile AMD Turion 64)NetbookAspire OneFerrari OneNettopAspireRevoPersonal digital assistantsS Series of Palm OS PDAsAcer N SeriesAutomotive navigation systemsAcer e300 series Travel Companion, with Destinator and NAVTEQ maps.Servers and storageAcer Altos seriesWorkstationsAcer PICAComputer displaysDLP ProjectorsMobile phonesAcer LiquidAcer NeoTouchOtherDigital camerasLCD TVs BrandsAcereMachinesGatewayPackard BellE-TEN Sports AdvertisingAcer sponsored the BAR-Honda Formula One racing team in the year 2000. In 2001, Acer provided sponsorship to the Prost Grand Prix Formula One team, and the team's Ferrari engines were badged as Acers.Acer currently sponsors the Ferrari Formula 1 team. In 2003 Acer signed a Gold Partner sponsorship deal with FC Internazionale Milano (Inter Milan) Football Club. From January 2007, Acer has become Official Supplier of FC Barcelona. On 19 March 2007, Acer announced that they will sponsor the Factory Fiat Yamaha Team for the 2007 MotoGP World Championship season. From 2009, Packard Bell (a subsidiary of Acer) will be the sponsor of Fiat Yamaha MotoGP.Acer will be listed among the Worldwide TOP Partners for both the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and for the London 2012 Summer Olympics. Other AdvertisingAcer Arena, at Sydney Olympic Park, NSW, is the largest indoor live entertainment and sporting arena in Australia. It was formerly named the Sydney Superdome.Designed and constructed by Abigroup Ltd in conjunction with Obayashi Corporation, the venue is acknowledged by experts as equal to the finest indoor arenas in the world today.One of the major venues for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Acer Arena hosted artistic gymnastics, trampoline, the basketball finals and wheelchair basket ball.The $200 millon complex was designed and constructed to set new benchmarks in urban design, access for people with disabilities, spectator comfort, operation efficiency and Olympic serviceability.The project comprises three subsites:Acer Arena, a 21,000 seat fully enclosed arena built under a 'Build, Own, Operate & Transfer' (B.O.O.T.) contract: $190 millon3400 space car park designed for high volume traffice entry and egress under a design and construct contract: $25 millionPlaza and external works covering over 32,000m2 under a management contract then converted to a lump sum: $25 millionAcer Arena was designed and constructed with very high environmental values and was awarded the prestigious national Banksia Award for Construction Practices in 1999.Officially opened by the former Premier of NSW, Bob Carr, in November 1999 with a gala performance by Luciano Pavarotti, Acer Arena has hosted events including Supercross, tennis, rock concerts, arena musicals, religious services, school spectaculars and banquets. See alsoMicroprofessor I Acer's first productBenQ formerly Acer CMALi formerly Acer Laboratories IncorporatedAOpen formerly AcerOpenACC (computer company)List of computer system manufacturersList of companies in TaiwaneMachinesGatewayPackard BellE-TENETEN operation systemLinpus Linux References^ "Acer, second largest PC manufacturer in the World". Gartner. January 13, 2010. /it/page.jsp?id=1279215. Retrieved 26 November 2009.^ "About Acer Milestones". Acer. /about/milestones.htm. Retrieved 7 July 2007.^ "Gianfranco Lanci is appointed President of Acer Inc., effective January 2005" (PDF). Acer. 1 September 2004. /press/New_President.pdf. Retrieved 27 April 2007.^ "PC market surged in 2005, will settle in 2006". cnet. 18 January 2006. /PC+market+surged+in+2005,+will+settle+in+2006/2100-1003_3-6028454.html. Retrieved 7 July 2007.^ 6:00 p.m. ET (27 August 2007). "Taiwan's Acer to buy PC maker Gateway - World business - MSNBC.com". MSNB C. /id/20458321/. Retrieved 7 April 2009.^ "Acer Buys 75 Percent of Packard Bell making it the 2nd largest computer maker in the world". Washington Post. /wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/31/AR2008013101390.html. Retrieved 7 April 2009.^ "Acer bets big on Linux". Vnunet. 4 June 2008. /vnunet/news/2218172/acer-pushes-linux-hard. Retrieved 31 July 2008.^ /timeline/home.html^ Products & Services PDA[dead link]^ About Acer News Release[dead link]^ About Acer News Release[dead link]^ "02.02.2009 Packard Bell sponsor of Yamaha Factory Racing Team: Changeover of sponsorship from Acer" (PDF). /NR/rdonlyres/841AAED9-A03E-43F4-812F-0B76FE4F387D/1061/pb_yamaha_sponsorship.pdf. Retrieved 7 April 2009. External linksWikimedia Commons has media related to: Acer computersCompanies portalOfficial websiteGatewayPackard BelleMachinesGlofiishE-TENLinpus Linux Categories: Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange | Companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange | Acer Incorporated | Companies established in 1976 | Computer hardware companies | Electronics companies of Taiwan | Portable audio player manufacturers | Taiwan brands | Display technology companiesHidden categories: All articles with dead external links | Articles with dead external links from April 2009 | Articles containing traditional Chinese language text | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from November 2008 | Portal:Companies/Total | Netbook manufacturers

Software for mobile devices released Android treasure: an operating system for mobile applications and an important undertaking.

To take full advantage of the Android mobile applications from scratch to relieve the developers to create a common ground to facilitate mobile applications. Android has been developed based on an open Linux kernel. It is said that the exact application may be open, as the lone address all the major cell functions such as sending text messages, calls and using the camera, which gives developers the opportunity to create a much richer, more consistent user experience. Android will continue the success of the developer group of people working mutually to get closer to the pioneer of mobile phone applications.

Android does not show favoritism between the basic applications and mobile applications intermediatory. Equipment for the Android platform will have an equal right to the use of all hand-Mobile provides users with a comprehensive resource of all kinds of applications and services. Android is full of mold bases for mobile phones handset according to their areas of curiosity.

Android tutorial contains a prologue to build applications for Android, and clean up. This guidance on how to create, manufacture, launch and modify the source code for Android.

Android tutorial includes instructions on where to start from the development of applications for Android, the creation of the first Android Activity. This is useful for both Android tutorial for people experienced in Java, as well as inept at human development and Java development.

In particular, run Mobile G1 Android mobile phone platform is a hardware built by Google with High Tech Computer Corporation (HTCC). G1 Android Phone T-Mobile was debuted at the 2008th Coming to technical aspects, the Android phone operating system Android applications, and acts as a vital undertaking. Android is based on the Linux kernel consists of Java applications and can also operate in C language applications. Android phone has some industrial goods Open Phone Alliance, which promotes the practice and further enhancement of the open-source software.

The major difference between the Android phone and other devices that use sophisticated operating software, Android. Android phone is a versatile, mobile applications, which can act as backdrop to the manifold and at the same time period. Although the fractions of the Android operating system kept a protective arm Apache License for Android phone is essential to the Sentinel, a lot of the operating system is on a rampage under the General Public License, to invite the specialized developers or hobbyists to make ingenious changes.

Android OS platform is a portable device to the motor vehicle by a driver in the Linux kernel was promoted to the phone carrier to ensure the principle of flexibility in the system.

Android OS software consists of a pile of applications for the operation of Java's object-oriented Java applications with the basic structure of the libraries functioning Dalvik virtual machine. Android OS source code contains 12 million lines, which consists of 2.8 million series C, series of XML 3,000,000, 1,750,000 lines of C + + and 2.1 million lines of Java.

The actual cheap shared hosting is the procedure in which you're sharing the resources from the machine with a lot of this kind of businesses. The main disadvantage of this kind of web hosting may be the lack of greater bandwidth and fast overall performance. If you're not really searching for a server that is not too a lot highly rated in terms of overall performance, then your shared option is the most profitable. A budget rate is because of the fact that a lot of such websites is going to be uploaded by the exact same server which cuts down on the cost each one of the sites having to pay.

Depending on your needs, you should use Linux system or Home windows. The one thing that you may have to consider is about selecting the manage sections. You'd be able to select between Parallels Plesk as well as cPanel. Both these options are quite popular and are widely used being that they are simple to manage and are dependable. When using Linux system, cPanel works the very best while Plesk works more effectively with Windows. It is easier to manage as well as run virtual private servers compared to discussed machines which is one of the main advantages.

A word associated with warning is that shared hosting will reveal resources. Because of this, you might not have the ability to include all the content that you want to because it will drain it through other users. For the majority, this drawback will not really make a difference in selecting this.

Another good way to select a good shared hosting company is to find a few web hosting review sites. Most website hosting evaluation sites will give you manipulated info, because they may be compensated by various hosting companies to enhance their ratings.

Nevertheless, though it may be typically the most popular, it's not the kind of web hosting without any difficulties. There is nothing perfect in this world. Shared web hosting comes with it's restrictions. Nonetheless, shared hosting is still a proper and appropriate website hosting for a lot of available. Along with careful selection, a good shared hosting provider will deliver excellent plan to your website requirements and provide you achievement inside your business.

Along with discussing web hosting, you will find frequently a variety of web sites, sometimes hundreds, that are being hosted on a single server. In the event that any one of those websites begins needing additional data transfer, after that all of the websites hosted by that particular server will begin to operate slower or may even accident due to the unexpected strain about the server. Even though a shared hosting environment is actually more affordable, in the event that dependability is required the person will improve away moving to some devoted machine.

Whenever you choose a shared hosting strategy, your website is going to be hosted on a machine, and also a number of additional web sites belonging to different proprietors. All of the web sites will reveal resources like data transfer, equipment as well as software program assets, and safety measures such as fire walls, antivirus software, as well as zero spam tools. Since these resources from the server are shared by the web sites located on it, the owners of those sites jointly purchase the services (except for the storage space, since not all websites eat equal room).