Whats the difference between Linux Hosting and Windows Hosting?

Linux Hosting: Linux is an open source system and is therefore more cost-effective to operate and maintain than Windows, meaning that Linux hosting will cost you less than Windows hosting. Linux also has a reputation for stability and speed which means that Linux web servers will crash less often than Windows web servers and Linux runs most processes faster than Windows. Linux supports a wide range of software, applications, languages, and databases such as PHP, Perl, PostGre, MySQL, PostgreSQL and many others making it very scalable. On the downside, Linux is not fully compatible with some Microsoft technologies so if you are using Access, ASP, MS SQL, or VB development tools then Windows would be a better bet. Windows Hosting The main "advantage" or distinction of Windows servers is that they can run Microsoft software such as Access and MS SQL databases. Windows servers also offer web developers the use of Microsoft's programming environments such as Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic Scripts, MS Index Server. Users can develop web site using the familiar interface of Microsoft tools such as, Visual Interdev, and Microsoft Access. With ASP users can develop a database-driven web site using Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL as the database

1-If you create the website with php and MySql , Linux hosting in better , but if you use ASP.NET and Access database , Windows hosting is better , 2- Linux hosting by default can't run ASP.NET application . 3- Linux hosting Cheaper than Windows hosting .

You have to grow a big bushy beard to use Linux.

Linux hosting - Cheaper, faster, if you have shell access you often have an array of already installed tools that can be extremely handy. Even if your chrooted all you need to know is the distro and version and you can install what you need. More secure and more flexible. Windows hosting - You can run .asp on Linux hosting but if you've got a ton of Microsoft specific dependencies sometimes it's just easier to use Windows hosting. This is generally only true if your leveraging APIs. Generally not the way to go as using those APIs create massive security risks and have to be rewritten nearly every new version of the software you are leveraging. You can do some VB and similar languages on Windows hosting to an extent but they'll by necessity have things locked down to the point where your code just plain may fail. So except under the most extreme circumstances I would recommend Linux hosting.

linux hosting is more common than windows. however if your website is coded in asp, .net, you need to choose windows hosting.