An Operating System is the software which interacts with the hardware of a PC and serves as the intermediary between applications and the hardware, which includes peripheral devices such as a printer, a mouse or a keyboard. When you run an app, it transfers requests to the OS using an API (Application Program Interface) and the interaction is done via a command line or a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Identical to a personal computer, hosting servers also feature an Operating System which serves as a host for the software installed on them, which includes script apps or server-side software such as a flash server, a VOIP server, and so on. A virtual machine can be generated on a physical one, so you can install a guest OS on it and have a different system environment in contrast with the physical server host Operating System.
Multiple OS in VPS
We provide three different Linux distributions for the Operating System of our virtual private servers - Debian, CentOS and Ubuntu. These are among the most stable and reliable OSs you can get and we supply all 3 instead of only one since we realize that you might want to install some software which has specific requirements regarding the Operating System it'll run on. The latter is because each of the three Operating Systems has a vast support community behind it and there're different software applications you can install on the web server. Your OS choice will also determine what hosting Control Panel can be installed on the VPS in case you wish to use one and because of this we offer several Control Panels too. In case you decide that you need a different OS, our technical support can quickly wipe the present one and install the one that you'd like. We also offer an optional service to have the OS on your VPS updated weekly.
Multiple OS in Dedicated Hosting
We offer three Operating Systems with our dedicated server packages - CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian. They are all different Linux distributions and we offer them not only because they are completely free and they won't increase the cost of your new web server, but also because they are extremely stable and secure. Each of them is supported by a big community of developers, so you'll be able to choose from thousands of software packages that you can install on your server if the app that you intend to employ has certain requirements. The Operating System will also determine what web hosting Control Panel you can use since the Control Panels that we offer are compatible with particular OSs only and since we would like to provide you with as much versatility as possible, we offer a couple of OSs and multiple Control Panels. If you get a server with a given OS, we will change it upon request if it turns out that you'll need a different one. We could also keep your OS updated on a weekly basis as a part of the additional Managed Services upgrade.