Just like your computer need an operating system for one to be able to access it, a website too needs to be hosted on a web server so you it can be accesses by web users. There are numerous web servers and server platforms offering these services on the web today. But each has got its advantages and disadvantages and so it is important of you to select wisely so that you make the best our the server or the platform you chose.

There has been a great deal of research conducted on which are the best web servers. The most popular being that when Unix and Linux are running the windows NT/2000 which is the internet running information server, as well as the Apache serve. The Apace is up by 60.17% whereas the NT/2000 is at 30.78%. You may hear the names Weblogics, Zues or SunOne. These are other types of web servers. But the aforementioned are the most popular with the Apache web server mainly because they are so compatible with the majority of computers and machines.

When we talk of a platform, it’s more like an operation system in computers. Web servers need these operating systems to enable them to run well and perform various tasks. But when talking of web servers, the operating system is known as platform. The most common platform is the UNIX, which is preferred by most web hosts who use FreeBSD, Linus, OpenBSD and NetBSD. Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 is another platform that is doing well in terms of market share and popularity as a web server platform.

Many website only need HTML applications and in this case the platform isn’t all that important. If however your applications are going to be more complex then you need to be more concise with your choice of platform.

But if you need to run dynamic content which might need to use functionalities like CGI scripts, ASP, SSI, JSP, or PHP, then you are advised to go for UNIX platform web hosting.

Although UNIX is a great platform sometime it just isn’t compatible with some applications. An example of this is ASP, MS Access, Microsoft SQL servers or Net and Cold Fusion. These applications require a Windows NT platform. A real bonus with UNIX is that it does support PHP, MySQL and Perl.

For many other reasons like having many more free programs supported by UNIX, this platform has been much cheaper that that of Microsoft. If you are there starting a business and need to save some money, you should design you website keeping this in mind and go for the servers that support UNIX.

Alfred Johnson is online marketer and web hosting expert, his latest ecommerce project is selling Train Horn Kits online.

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