An Operating System is the software that communicates with the hardware of a PC and functions as the intermediary between apps and the hardware, which includes peripheral devices such as a printer, a computer mouse or a keyboard. When you run an application, it transfers requests to the OS using an API (Application Program Interface) and the communication is done through a command line or a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Similar to a personal computer, web hosting servers also feature an Operating System that acts as a host for all of the software installed on them, including script apps or server-side software such as a flash server, a VOIP server, and many others. A virtual machine can be generated on a physical one, so you will be able to install a guest OS on it and have a different system environment compared to the physical server host OS.
Multiple OS in VPS Hosting
In case you select one of our virtual private server plans, you'll have 3 different Operating Systems to pick from - CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu. They're all Linux releases and we offer them instead of offering just a single OS, as the apps that you might choose to run on the server could have specific requirements regarding the software environment. Each of these three has some advantages with regard to the available packages that you can later install, but what's common between them is the fact that they're very stable and reliable and have vast communities which support them. The hosting Control Panel options for the VPS accounts depend on your Operating System choice, so as to give you more flexibility. When you order the virtual server with one OS and you need a different one later, our tech support team can easily reinstall the VPS with the new one in a couple of minutes. We also offer the option to keep 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 plans - CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian. They are all different Linux distributions and we offer them not only because they are totally free and they will not increase the price of your new web server, but also because they are exceptionally stable and secure. Each one of them is backed up by a vast community of developers, so you'll be given the option to choose from thousands of software packages that you could install on your server in case the app that you would like to work with has certain requirements. The Operating System will also determine what hosting Control Panel you can use since the Control Panels that we offer run on particular OSs only and because we want to provide you with as much flexibility as possible, we offer a couple of OSs and multiple Control Panels. In case you choose a server with a certain OS, we will change it upon request in case it turns out that you need another one. We can also keep your OS updated weekly as a part of the optional Managed Services upgrade.