Which web hosting platform on which to put his or her server can be a very difficult choice to make for any newcomer. The two most commonly used choices are the Linux web server and the Windows web server.
Control panel and FTP commands – Linux and Windows servers provide support to these equally well, but some of the FTP commands have slight variations in each operating system as the FTP programs are often designed with either Windows or Linux in mind. In running a few of the FTP commands on your computer server, this is why you will sometimes receive error messages. *
Support – compared to Windows, Linux has limited support for some of its technology which proved to be expensive and limited at times. Linux is designed with a certain set of tech in mind each time whereas Windows is designed to have generic appeal.
Security and reliability- Windows is a platform that is used extensively in home computing uses and some of the security features that come with it are simply not as technologically advanced as those that are offered with the Linux platform which is more commonly used by system engineers and developers. It is much more likely that a Windows Operating System will be hacked into than a Linux Operating System and this may be because hackers expend a lot of energy seeking flaws in the Windows system. In regards to performance,
Linux is considered to have very high performance, mostly because of how they are packaged and presented. Linux systems are frequently used with the end consumer in mind as opposed to a generic format. Windows usually operate in a different manner and prefer to offer a one size fits all approach with a more generalized set of tools.
Conversion- this is an area that should be heavily considered when thinking about what operating system may offer the most for you because you will pretty easily be able to convert your system from Linux to Windows if you decide to go with the former initially but change your mind. Whereas if you upgrade from Windows to Linux you can expect some difficulty during the conversion process.