To help you choose the best operating system (OS) for your Web site to reside on, I have developed the following guide:

First let"s start with a definition of an operating system, which is the software platform on which a web server runs.

Red Hat Linux:

Linux is an excellent operating system that is well suited to meet your web hosting needs. It handles the functions of mailing, and serving up Web sites and files especially well. Additionally, there are a huge amount of free applications available on the Internet for Linux and it uses less hardware resources than Windows 2003. Whether you are a fairly experienced webmaster or new to web hosting, we recommend that you choose Red Hat Linux as your hosting platform.

Red Hat Linux is most widely used hosting platform in the world.

Microsoft Windows 2003:

Microsoft Windows 20003 server provides a suitable platform for serving up Web sites, files, and streaming media. Additionally, it integrates well with other Microsoft applications and there are a large amount of commercial applications available for this OS. We recommend you choose Windows 2003 as your hosting platform only if you are using specific applications that require Microsoft Windows to run such as Access, Cold Fusion, ASP, .Net, and Microsoft SQL.

Note: Microsoft FrontPage may be used on both the Linux and Windows platforms.

Please Note:

One of the biggest misconceptions is that you have to select the same operating system for your hosting account that you use on your own computer. That is simply not true. This means you can select Linux for your hosting account if you currently use Windows 95, 98, NT/200, or XP on your own computer. We suggest that everyone who chooses a shared hosting plan, host their Web site on Linux if they are not utilizing ASP, Cold Fusion, or MSSQL 2000.

There are soo many Web Hosting providers out there in market, but I would like to recommend few of them: VIP PowerNet Web Hosting (http://www.vipwh.com), The Hosting Guide (http://www.thehostingguide.com). They are reliable and affordable web hosting providers.

I hope this article might help you choose the right hosting provider for your web site.