[LuluG]

Hi

I am developing a small, fairly basic website comprising about 6 screens with a gallery or two using Dreamweaver and a little bit of Javascript.

I have just started looking at hosting and am totally confused re whether I need Linux or Windows hosting. One provider I spoke to said I had to use Linux with DW, another said Windows. I'm not technical, but I am reasonably competent; however, the online stuff about the two is just too involved and complicated and I fast loose the will to live!

Any advice and guidance as to how to decide on the hosting would be really appreciated.

[Jst Hosting - Thomas]

LuluG, on 12 December 2011 - 09:10 PM, said:

Hi

I am developing a small, fairly basic website comprising about 6 screens with a gallery or two using Dreamweaver and a little bit of Javascript.

I have just started looking at hosting and am totally confused re whether I need Linux or Windows hosting. One provider I spoke to said I had to use Linux with DW, another said Windows. I'm not technical, but I am reasonably competent; however, the online stuff about the two is just too involved and complicated and I fast loose the will to live!

Any advice and guidance as to how to decide on the hosting would be really appreciated.

Hi LuluG, welcome to the forums.

Generally you should only go with Windows hosting if you need windows-specific technologies (such as ASP). As you have made your site using Dreamweaver, I assume it's just static HTML files with images so it'll work on either Windows or Linux. However, Linux tends to be more reliable in the hosting industry so I suggest you look towards Linux hosting.

I hope this helps.

[LuluG]

Jst Hosting - Thomas, on 12 December 2011 - 09:13 PM, said:

Hi LuluG, welcome to the forums.

Generally you should only go with Windows hosting if you need windows-specific technologies (such as ASP). As you have made your site using Dreamweaver, I assume it's just static HTML files with images so it'll work on either Windows or Linux. However, Linux tends to be more reliable in the hosting industry so I suggest you look towards Linux hosting.

I hope this helps.

Hi, thanks for replying to my post. I don't think I will need windows specific technologies and the site is likely to be static, at least for the foreseeable future. I'll look into Linex.

Thanks again, Lulu

[Michael Swan]

As the owner of a website hosting company, I prefer to use a Linux Server to provide my Clients.

Windows Hosting tends to be for those who require certain aspects of code to run on the server. Like .asp and .aspx, etc.

Linux Hosting is more affordable than Windows Hosting, because of the fact that Microsoft charge for the use of it's operating system; and ultimately this cost is passed down to the consumer.

In my opinion, Linux Hosting is the way forward.

Best Regards,
Michael Swan

[LuluG]

Thanks, Michael. I asked one of the providers why I would 'have' to have Linux if I was using DW (his words, not mine). His reply was really vague and to the effect that the way DW is structured means that you definitely have to have Linux. That's clearly not the case from the answers I've received so far.

[rallport]

Michael Swan, on 13 December 2011 - 09:18 AM, said:

As the owner of a website hosting company, I prefer to use a Linux Server to provide my Clients.

In my opinion, Linux Hosting is the way forward.

That's quite an odd response coming from someone how owns a hosting company. Surely the choice of server type comes down to the users requirements.

[Michael Swan]

rallport, on 18 December 2011 - 05:49 PM, said:

That's quite an odd response coming from someone how owns a hosting company. Surely the choice of server type comes down to the users requirements.

Of course the user requirements are a very important factor when choosing the type of OS for the server. my reply was in the case of a general website that could be ran on either Windows or Linux.

[MikeChipshop]

Depends on your (and your clients) requirements.
If you're going to be using stuff such as ASP and .net then you'll need a Windows server.

[rallport]

MikeChipshop, on 18 December 2011 - 06:40 PM, said:

Depends on your (and your clients) requirements.
If you're going to be using stuff such as ASP and .net then you'll need a Windows server.

Saying that some hosts do offer "hybrid hosting" whereby you can run both

[MikeChipshop]

rallport, on 18 December 2011 - 07:58 PM, said:

Saying that some hosts do offer "hybrid hosting" whereby you can run both

Yeah i ran a clients WordPress on one of these hosts for a while. Having to use hacks do simple things just isn't pretty.
Choose the right tool for the job, that's what i say!

[rallport]

MikeChipshop, on 18 December 2011 - 08:01 PM, said:

Yeah i ran a clients WordPress on one of these hosts for a while. Having to use hacks do simple things just isn't pretty.
Choose the right tool for the job, that's what i say!

Not sure who you host with, but when I used the feature on my host it was a simple click of a button. Only slight issues I had initially were with MIME types - but that was an easy fix

[oakleaves]

RE: "Linux or Windows for website?"

Prefer linux myself if I had to choose, having used both linux and windows hosting. (Had to use windows hosting once as I needed to install a program that was developed in asp. Wasn't a pleasant experience. Unless you have a specific program that needs asp etc and/or that is your programming language of choice, I would strongly recommend linux for the hosting and PHP / MySQL for the development).

[oakleaves]

That said, if you do decide that you do need windows hosting in the end give me a shout.

This post has been edited by oakleaves: 18 December 2011 - 09:06 PM

[zed]

rallport, on 18 December 2011 - 05:49 PM, said:

That's quite an odd response coming from someone how owns a hosting company. Surely the choice of server type comes down to the users requirements.

exactly but you're talking to a reseller who in reality owns nothing.

[rallport]

oakleaves, on 18 December 2011 - 09:04 PM, said:

RE: "Linux or Windows for website?"

Prefer linux myself if I had to choose, having used both linux and windows hosting. (Had to use windows hosting once as I needed to install a program that was developed in asp. Wasn't a pleasant experience. Unless you have a specific program that needs asp etc and/or that is your programming language of choice, I would strongly recommend linux for the hosting and PHP / MySQL for the development).

To be honest, I didn't t notice the difference when using Hybrid hosting. The only difference was that I was able to run .aspx files

Guess it depends how the host has it setup, as it was pretty seamless from my end

[oakleaves]

rallport, on 19 December 2011 - 01:30 PM, said:

To be honest, I didn't t notice the difference when using Hybrid hosting. The only difference was that I was able to run .aspx files

Guess it depends how the host has it setup, as it was pretty seamless from my end

Yeah true. On reflection, I seem to recall a lot of my gripe at the time was the asp etc rather than the hosting. I hate that stuff!

[sclarke]

I would almost certainly suggest linux for this, especially as you say it will almost certainly be static, even if it wasn't, linux for PHP and MySQL. I'd only ever go to windows if it was 100% essential so use the asp script, even then I'd look for a PHP alternative.

[LuluG]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. Much appreciated.

I'm going to talk to the hosting company about Linux as my site will be relatively simple, and it's also a better price.

Thanks again!