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differences between MS & Linux servers

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Channy

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May 14, 2007
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I'm about to sign up for a web hosting. There are two categoreis under web-hosting which are Microsoft Hosting and Linux Hosting. I have absolutely no idea about servers and web programming. I just want to make an HTML photo gallery. I don't need PHP or CGI etc. All I need is HTML. Which one do you recommend for me?
 
Just go with the Linux server. Unless you ever plan to use MS based coding languages (you won't) use the Linux one.
 
Channy said:
I'm about to sign up for a web hosting. There are two categoreis under web-hosting which are Microsoft Hosting and Linux Hosting. I have absolutely no idea about servers and web programming. I just want to make an HTML photo gallery. I don't need PHP or CGI etc. All I need is HTML. Which one do you recommend for me?
Click to expand...

Strictly for your stated purpose, either type of platform would work. Thinking in a slightly more advanced way, Microsoft Windows servers will usually let you use things like ASP, the .net platform, Microsoft SQL Server and IIS server. For Linux, you'd have languages like PHP, Perl (though, to be fair, there are windows hosts who also provide that stuff), mySQL, and Apache httpd. Some might even use Lighttpd.

Honestly though, depending on your photo gallery, I would say that you might want to investigate pre-existing software out there like PHP Gallery2, or Coppermine Photo Gallery, or <insert some other photo gallery software>. You might find that it makes it more convenient, especially if you want to (re)arrange photos, delete, add on a regular basis. Then you can choose your hosting plan based on that.
 
For what you're doing, like bashPenguin said, either platform should meet your needs. My experience with Windows servers is extremely limited, but if you want one difference, I can rattle one off. A Linux/Unix server is case sensitive, so if you had a webpage already made on a Windows server, and moved the page onto Linux, if you had something like this in your code:

Code: 
<img src="images/my_picture.jpg">

and the file was actually "My_Picture.jpg" it would be a nice red x on your page, under Linux, even though it would show up if hosted on a Windows server. File extensions also matter too. If you have .jpg and the file is .JPG it would also fail to load the photo. Of course this isn't just limited to images, but it was used as an example.

It's not a huge deal, in my opinion, until you have a decent sized website and the client wants to move onto a new server, that happens to be Linux, and some images are .JPG while others are .jpg, etc., and you're left with some added work.
 
There's also the matter of price. Windows hosting is generally more expensive than Linux-based hosting, for similar features.
 
I'm in a 95% Windows 2003 guy. I use Linux hosting only when it's free--that'll be 5%.
 
you can use apache, mysql and even java servers in windows... linux is more "RAW" than MS though
 
Except the OP is not setting up his own server, so he has to choose between hosting plans offered by companies, which usually implies Apache in Linux, and IIS on Windows. I don't know any windows hosts that use Apache on Windows for their shared plans, so if you guys know of any, I'd like to check that out.
 
Working as technical support for a dedicated hosting company, I'll give you my perspective. For what you are doing you will probably not notice any difference, but I would personally go with the Linux hosting over Windows in that case. I just personally have a preference to Linux when it comes to hosting environments. Don't get me wrong Windows isn't bad, it's a matter of personal preference, and if all you are doing is uploading static HTML and images you really won't notice a difference except in the basic directory structure (which depending on control panel you won't even notice that). In the end, go with what meets your budget and needs.
 
My vote is for Linux. Easier, faster, better for OP's purpose. And, it's a good way to learn the whole intro to the world of *nix.

Good luck!
 
RavinDJ said:
My vote is for Linux. Easier, faster, better for OP's purpose. And, it's a good way to learn the whole intro to the world of *nix.
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How can you be sure of "easier, faster, better" for the OP?
Beyond Jerome36's comment about filenames and maybe learning a front-end control panel or administration screen, the OP is not going to have to learn about an OS for the stated requirement of HTML pages.


And getting back on topic ... Don't think of choosing a webhost as a life-long commitment. Decide based on how much you're willing to spend, your up-time/availability needs, storage allowances, and support options. Talk to them to find out any other questions regarding possible feature-adds that you are thinking about doing in the future, as they might have some apps or suggestions already for what you would be interested in doing. Changing later on is not a problem.

Your needs do not lean toward a specific operating system. So let the webhost admins handle the responsibility of securing the server and your files, ensuring availability, and providing a responsive hosting environment - regardless of the webhost's OS preference. It's all part of why you're paying them. :rolleyes:
 
With MS hosting, can you configure mime types, directory view and access just as easily as with linux hosting?

I really like being able to use .htaccess. With MS hosting, do you have to go through some config panel and mess with a bunch of settings to get the same result?

With what little I've messed with IIS, I've found it a pain to change those things. Do they wrap that in a nice web interface?
 
Gallery 2 software looks so cool to me. I don't know how to work with PHP now but someday in near future I'm going to try to install that real nice software. So I chose linux hosting for PHP capability. Thanks for all of your replies.
 
Channy said:
Gallery 2 software looks so cool to me. I don't know how to work with PHP now but someday in near future I'm going to try to install that real nice software. So I chose linux hosting for PHP capability. Thanks for all of your replies.
Click to expand...

You don't have to know PHP nor mySQL to use Gallery2. You simply install the software (pretty easy, there is documentation on the official site about this) and can start making galleries and such.

Depending on the host you go with, they probably have one-click installs of common software like Gallery for your webspace.
 
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