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Windows hosting is more expensive, less dependable, less well supported, and less capable than Linux. Unless you are running applications (such as ASP or .Net, or use MSSQL) that absolutely require a Windows server and/or database, stick with Linux.

Note that some Windows services (e.g., ASP) may be available on a Linux server for extra cost (work-alikes such as Chilisoft). If you’re going to pay extra for something like that, you might want to go ahead and go 100% Windows, just so there’s no question about compatibility.

Windows and Linux often use two different web server applications. Windows sites use the Windows IIS server, while nearly all Linux sites use Apache.

Linux sites focus on PHP, Perl and other open-source script languages for server side scripting. Windows-based sites use ,NET and ASP technologies. They might also offer support for PHP.

Linux sites offer MySQL as the database for backend content storage. Windows sites will probably offer SQL Server, though some offer the Windows versions of MySQL as well.

There shouldn’t be any difference between the two if you use strict web standards in your HTML. However, you need to be aware of the fact that, since Dreamweaver is a Windows-only product, it may insert some non-standard things into your HTML. Frontpage also does this.

How do I offset the Timezone for my location, instead of the server timezone?

First of all, setting the timezone at .htaccess level using “SetEnv TZ location” doesn’t work on your php script.

If you are using PHP 5.1 and ealier, add this code within your php

putenv(‘TZ=Europe/London’);   /* change the TZ value accordingly. */

If you are using PHP 5.1 up, add this code within your php script.

date_default_timezone_set(‘Europe/London’);

Apache 2.x hosting offer many new features compare to Apache 1.3.x, including

• Unix Threading – On Unix systems with POSIX threads support, Apache can now run in a hybrid multiprocess, multithreaded mode. This improves scalability for many, but not all configurations.
• Better support for non-Unix platforms – Apache 2.0 is faster and more stable on non-Unix platforms such as BeOS, OS/2, and Windows. With the introduction of platform-specific multi-processing modules (MPMs) and the Apache Portable Runtime (APR), these platforms are now implemented in their native API, avoiding the often buggy and poorly performing POSIX-emulation layers.

Lunarpages has recently upgrade their web hosting plan to include option to support Apache 2 hosting. Customer do not have to pay extra for this extra feature.  If you are not sure which one to choose, pick 1.3.x as Apache 1.3 has been very stable for years.

 Lunarpages is also running a promotion now, by entering coupon code “spring“, you will get $48 off your total bill for all 2 years hosting plan. Which also means, the hosting plan is as low as $4.95/month after discount.  Click here to enjoy this discount.