When hosting your web site, you will need to be able to access your pages on the server.  Both Linux web hosting and Windows web hosting support ftp access, while Linux also supports telnet and ssh.  You'll want to consider the applications and programming languages that each form of hosting offers when deciding whether to use Linux or Windows to host your website.

     If your site will be using forms, you'll need to be able to process server-side scripts.  Both Linux web hosting and Windows web hosting support coldfusion, while PHP is generally found on Linux and ASP is generally found on Windows servers.

    Databases allow you to run a dynamically driven website.  Microsoft Access is a very popular database application, but it is only supported by Windows servers.  Both Linux and Windows servers can run mySQL databases, but they are more commonly found on Linux.

   Security is always a concern for web site developers and owners.  There are many people who will say that Windows servers are more vulnerable to security problems than Linux servers, but in reality, both Linux and Windows have security concerns.  The administrators of the hosting are the people who should be most concerned with security, and if you choose a hosting company with good administration, you'll have a more secure web site, regardless of whether you choose Windows hosting or Linux hosting.

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Part of the PremiusHosting article series, PremiusHosting Technologies offers cheap Linux web hosting plans and a number of other services.