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Unix Versus Windows

If you're not quite sure what the difference is between Unix and Windows, you're not alone -- it's one of our most common questions. We put together the following information to help you make an informed decision about which operating system best suits your needs.

Platform Myths

First off, we want to dispel a few common misconceptions about each platform.

My personal computer runs Windows so I need a Windows hosting account. Not true. The operating system on your personal computer and the operating system on your hosting account are totally independent. Whatever you run on your own computer (Windows, Mac OS, Linux), there are many tools available for you to manage your web site on either hosting platform.
Unix is too complicated and just for computer nerds. Not true. You can easily run your web site from a Unix server without getting into the complicated stuff going on behind the scenes. Most of the sites on the Internet are running on Unix servers, and the vast majority of those are managed by non-gurus.
Windows is unreliable and crashes all the time. Not true. Windows 2000 is a mature operating system, which thousands of businesses rely on for mission-critical web applications. We have had production Windows servers that have gone for more than a year without needing a reboot.

Deciding Factors

Deciding on the right operating system for your hosting account shouldn't be difficult. After considering each of the following factors, one platform should emerge as the clear choice. Most of these deal with 'back-end' technologies. If your site does not currently use any of these features, consider which ones you might use in the future.

Previous or current hosting platform. If you are moving an account from another hosting company you, should probably stick with the same platform. This decreases the chance of incompatibilities.
Platform-specific features. If your site is more than just static HTML and graphics, you are probably using one or more features that are unique to a specific platform. Server-side scripting is the most common of these. Unix supports Perl, CGI and PHP, while Windows supports ASP (VBScript, JScript) and ASP.NET (VB.NET, C#). Another important platform-specific feature is database connectivity. MySQL is only available on Unix and Microsoft Access is only supported on Windows.
Developer experience. Generally, the person or group developing your web site will have stronger background in either the Windows or Unix environment. If your developer uses tools like Visual Studio or Dreamweaver, codes in Visual Basic, or designs MS Access databases, go with Windows. If your developer writes Perl or PHP scripts, loves MySQL and doesn't need any fancy tools, go with Unix.
Script and component availability. If you are planning on using a specific web application, script or component, check the documentation to see what platform it runs on. Many free and commercial scripts are available for both Unix and Windows. However, there are definitely more free Perl and PHP scripts out there for Unix than there are ASP scripts for Windows. Also, some e-commerce applications use Windows-only shipping and payment processing components.

Conclusion

The choice of Unix or Windows for your web hosting platform should be based on your individual needs, site requirements, tools, people and technologies you will be working with.

Hopefully, the information we have provided has helped you reach a decision. If you're still not sure which one is right for you, or it seems like the discussed terms here are not relevant to your web site, Unix is always a safe default choice, but you would probably be happy with Windows as well.