An Operating System is the basic software that controls a PC. It takes care of how the hardware behaves, the communication with peripherals such as a monitor, a printer or a keyboard, the allocation of memory between the installed applications, plus the prioritization of apps when several run at once. Every program which is installed on a computer system operates by sending requests to the OS for various services via an application program interface (API). The contact with the OS can be done using a Graphical User Interface (GUI) or a command line. In the hosting world, the Operating System is what commands a hosting server along with all the software installed on it, which includes not only website scripts, but, in addition any other application for example a VOIP or a game server. If there're virtual machines created, they use a guest OS that runs on the server host OS.
Multiple OS in VPS Hosting
If you choose one of our virtual private server plans, you'll have three different Operating Systems to choose from - CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu. They're all Linux releases and we offer them rather than offering just one OS, since the apps that you might choose to run on the server could have specific requirements regarding the software environment. Each of the three has some advantages in terms of the available plans that you could eventually install, but what's common between them is the fact that they're really stable and reliable and have huge communities which support them. The web hosting Control Panel options for the VPS accounts depend on your Operating System choice, so as to give you more flexibility. If you order the virtual server with one OS and you need another one later, our technical support team can easily reinstall the VPS with the new one in a matter of minutes. We also offer the option to maintain the Operating System on your server up-to-date weekly.
Multiple OS in Dedicated Web Hosting
The dedicated server plans that we offer come with as many as three different Operating Systems to select from. They are all Linux distributions - Ubuntu, CentOS and Debian, and not only do they have no license taxes, but they are also considered to be among the most reliable and secure OSs. We provide three different ones since each of them is backed by a separate community. The packages that you could add on your web server are different and this may matter if you need to install some piece of software with particular requirements about the hosting environment. In this light, the internet hosting Control Panel which you can select for the dedicated server is also determined by the Operating System that you'll pick. You can choose any of the three Operating Systems during the order procedure, yet if needed, we can always install the server once again with a different one upon your request. As an optional service that you may add to the plan whenever you want, we can update the OS regularly in order to keep it as secure as possible.