Every single notebook or desktop or server is run by an Operating System - the low-level program which interacts with the hardware, including peripherals such as a mouse or a printer, along with any apps that are installed on the system. Any program input through a command line or a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is processed by sending an Application Program Interface (API) request to the OS. On a web server, any app runs within the parameters defined by the OS as well - priority, physical memory, processing time, etc. This is valid for both standard website scripts and server-side software such as a media server. If a virtual server is created on a physical one, there can be two independent Operating Systems, named guest OS and host OS, so you will be able to set up a different software environment on a single machine.
Multiple OS in VPS Hosting
If you choose one of our virtual private server plans, you'll have as many as three different Operating Systems to choose from - CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu. They're all Linux releases and we offer them instead of offering just a single OS, because the apps that you may want to run on the server could have specific requirements about the software environment. Each of the three has some advantages with regard to the available packages that you may eventually install, but what is common between them is that they are very secure and dependable and have large communities that support them. The hosting Control Panel choices for the VPS accounts depend on your OS choice, so as to provide you with more flexibility. When you order the virtual server with one OS and you need a different one later, our technical support team can easily reinstall the VPS with the new one in a couple of minutes. We also offer the option to maintain the Operating System on your server up-to-date on a weekly basis.
Multiple OS in Dedicated Web Hosting
We offer three Operating Systems with our dedicated server solutions - CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian. They're all different Linux distributions and we offer them not only because they're completely free and they will not increase the price of your new hosting server, but also because they are really secure and stable. Each one of them is supported by a vast community of web developers, so you'll be given the option to choose from thousands of software packages that you can install on your server if the application that you intend to use has certain requirements. The Operating System will also determine what internet hosting Control Panel you can use because the Control Panels that we offer are compatible with specific OSs only and since we want to provide you with as much adaptability as possible, we offer several OSs and multiple Control Panels. If you get a server with a given OS, we will change it upon request if it turns out that you need another one. We could also keep your OS updated weekly as part of the optional Managed Services upgrade.