Linux Community Magazine

Linux hosting or Windows hosting which one is better? A basic question asked by all web hosting service buyers, especially those who are beginners and have no prior web hosting experience. The thing is there is no one-word answer to this question. It totally depends on what you want to do with your website or web applications.

It is advisable to do your homework before you start to find a web host. This article gives you an idea on the basic differences between Windows and Linux hosting. With latest technical advancements, the differences are getting blurred day by day, but a fine line still exists between Linux and Windows web hosting services.

Linux Hosting and Windows Hosting A Comparative Study

Lets learn more about Windows and Linux platforms in terms of most important web hosting features.

Stability

A web server is not like a Desktop PC it has to perform a lot of complicated tasks in a short time. Moreover, to keep your website and web applications live 24x7, you have to keep the server active around the clock. Therefore, stability is of prime importance when it comes to web hosting.

In general, Linux is said to be more stable OS (Operating System) than Windows. However, Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 are specifically built for servers; hence, they are very much stable in comparison with their predecessors.

The truth is: both Linux and Windows web hosting can give you a stable and reliable platform if handled by experts.

Performance

It is often reported that Linux can handle multiple processes simultaneously with ease, whereas, Windows becomes slow and needs reboot when high number of processes run in a short time. However, the latest versions of Windows Server OS are stable and reliable enough to handle additional loads.

Functionality

Basically there is nothing that you can do with Linux and cannot do with Windows hosting OR vice versa. However, there are some applications and programs that are not supported by both of the operating systems.

For example, if you intend to set up a database driven website on Linux server, you can go with PHP/MySQL or Perl/MySQL combination and there are more options available including programming languages like Java and Python. On the other hand, if you are using a Windows based server, it is suggested to get the website designed with ASP/MS SQL. ASP is a Microsoft product and supported by the Windows operating system.

In fact, Windows based servers support all Microsoft applications. For example, you can use all features of FrontPage on Windows server, but a limited number of FrontPage features can be used with Linux hosting.

Pricing

Linux is open source software whereas Windows is a copyrighted product of Microsoft Corporation. Therefore, Linux hosting is naturally cheaper than Windows hosting. Being community driven and open source, it might become difficult to troubleshoot Linux servers, whereas, Windows comes with professional post-sales support.

So which one is better?

It is quite difficult to tag one of them as superior to the other. Both Linux and Windows have their own advantages. It is wise to sketch out the requirements first and then consult professionals that know which hosting platform would be good to use.

The Acer Aspire One is already a great deal among mini-laptops, also called netbooks. But if you want to spend even less, consider getting your Acer laptop with the Linux operating system rather than Windows. There are several versions of Linux and the one that comes with the Acer mini laptop is called Linpus Lite. It has the same type of look and feel as Windows, so you won't be totally thrown off, and with Linux you actually have a few advantages, not just price

Lower Laptop PriceOff the bat, the Linux operating system is free, where Windows is not. Therefore the price of any computer loaded with Linux, including the Acer Aspire One, will be less than one with Windows, at least by $50 less.

Faster, Safer ComputerLinux is actually a very stable operating system, used on millions of computers. It run faster and takes up less space than Windows because of its streamlined code, but this is still solid and secure operating system. In fact, it is so rare that a virus would attack your Linux laptop (because of the way file permissions work), that you really don't need an anti-virus application.

Easy to UseNow, not every version of Linux is a breeze to use right away--some take a little getting used to. However, the Linpus Lite version of Linux, is extremely easy to use, right out of the box. As soon as you turn on the computer, you get a screen with four boxes labeled Connect (with your Internet and email), Work (word processing, spreadsheets, etc.), Fun (games, photo editing, etc.) and Files (to find your documents, your music, and your pictures). No blank desktop, no trying to figure out where your program is from the Start button. Even novice users will be able to quickly pick up on this simple, intuitive Linux environment.

Cheaper applicationsThe Acer netbook loaded with Linpus has the applications you need to hit the ground running. You have an office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing), email, Web browsing, calendar, games and more. And there are many other applications you can download to run on Linux, a good number of them for free, like Gimp for photo editing.

If Linux are so great, why don't more people use it?

Since Windows has dominated the marketplace, it gets hard to get other people and businesses to look at other ways of computing. Admittedly, there are some applications that will not run Linux, and if you use must use some specialty application, make sure it will work on your Acer mini. However, every type of application exist in Linux, from word processing to video editing to first-person games, and anything you can do on Windows can be done in Linux. If you are mostly using your computer for typing, drawing and pictures and Internet-an Acer Aspire One mini laptop loaded with Linpus Linux Lite will work just as well for you.

UnionFS is a Linux file system service that allows users to have the union mount for other Linux file systems. The union mount is the procedure of mounting several Linux file systems simultaneously. All these mounted file systems would then work as a solitary file system. The function of UnionFS is to enable files and directories of different Linux file systems to work as a single logical file system. These directories and files are called branches. When you merge the branches, a virtual file system is created. In virtual file system, the contents of directories that have same file path within branches are seen together. When the branches are mounted, priority of branches is specified over one another. These mounted braches could be either read-write or read-only file systems. It sets the status of file system as readable or writeable. Using UnionFS is very useful. It allows users to modify any file on the system. It could also be used for creating a single common outline for several file systems or for security purpose. In this way, you can see that using UnionFS is extremely helpful for Linux users to complete several operations easily but sometimes it could create severe situations. You may face Linux data loss in following situations:If you modify any UnionFS branch directly, when it is in mounted state, it could result into serious data loss.In UnionFS merged branches, after switch-root or pivot-root, if you set '/' to new point in existing file system hierarchy, you may face file system corruption and thus data loss. In both of these situations, you need to opt for Data Recovery linux to get your data back. It is potential through powerful and advanced Linux Recovery software. These software are very easy to use and thus allow you to have quick and straightforward Data Recovery Linux. Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is a result oriented and fully automated Linux Recovery software that s capable of handling each and every logical da ta loss situation. It supports Linux Data Recovery from Ext2, Ext3 and ReiserFS file systems. Phoenix Linux Recovery is compatible with most of the Linux distributions.

Linux allows you to have one or more physical volumes on a single machine. Logical volumes can fit completely on physical volumes, even though you never unequivocally create them as adjacent. A logical volume could take part of all physical volumes. Sometimes, due to hardware failure, software malfunction and other reasons, one or more of your physical volumes may go bad and you have to replace them with new ones. In this process, if you do not have proper data backup, you will need disaster recovery skills to carry out Data Recovery. After adding new physical volume to volume group, when you reboot your system, Linux may put you in root maintenance shell if your logical volumes are not detectable by boot loader. When you use 'pvscan' to find out the volumes, you may get following error messages:"Missing UUID"and"PV unknown device"However, pvscan shows that all other physical volumes are intact. Only the replaced volume is unusable. Pvscan is a Linux command line utility t hat is used to scan all of the supported block devices in system for physical volumes. In this case, when you use fdisk, it shows that there is no partition table on the specified hard drive. In such situations, you can not boot your system and thus can not access the data stored on it. The whole behavior of your Linux system results into serious loss of critical data and put you in need of Linux Data Recovery. Linux Data Recovery is the process of retrieving lost, missing or inaccessible hard drive volumes and data from them. An absolute and quick Linux Recovery needs a powerful and highly developed Linux Recovery software such as Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery. Phoenix Linux Recovery is an easy to use yet powerful application to ensure complete extraction of all your precious data. The read-only and non-destructive design of this robust Linux Data Recovery software performs precise Data Recovery Linux. It supports recovery from Ext2, Ext3 and ReiserFS file system ba sed Linux volumes.

When you run fsck on your Linux file system's physical volume, sometimes you may encounter certain error messages. These error messages prevent you from accessing data from a particular volume. In such situations, technical experts recommend to use 'pacman' tool to upgrade the kernel and reboot your system to complete the operation. Pacman is a Linux tool that is used to manage the applications. It uses simple files in package format and organizes text-based package database. It is useful in adding, removing and upgrading packages in Linux system. After updating the kernel, when you attempt to reboot the system, sometimes your system may get stuck during the boot process. In place of loading GRUB (Grand Unified Boot loader) and booting, your system just tries to process the required information, showing "loading GRUB" message. In such situations, when you try to boot your system using floppy disk, you may encounter the following error message:"ERROR: (device hda1): X_GETPA GE: xtree page corrupt ERROR: (device hda1): XT_GETPAGE: xtree page corrupt"After this behavior, when you again run fsck, you encounter the following error message:"Errors detected in Primary File/Directory Allocation Table.File system object FF65726 linked as: /var/run/random-seed File claims cross linked block(s). Cannot repair FF65726."Subsequent execution of fsck also detects several errors but fails to fix them.CauseThis problem generally occurs due to corrupted GRUB or file system of your Linux system. In both of these situations, to carry out Linux Recovery, you need to format your hard drive and install fresh copy of both these data structures. Formatting may delete all of your stored data from hard drive and you need to go for third party Linux Recovery tools to get Linux Recovery done. These tools are very powerful and are able to perform Data Recovery Linux i all situations of data loss.Stellar Information Systems Limited, the leading data recovery company globall y, provides Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery. It is the finest and most promising Linux Recovery software. It supportsLinux Data Recovery from Ext2, Ext3 and ReiserFS file system based volumes. Phoenix Linux Recovery is compatible with most of Linux distributions.