Every desktop or notebook or web server is run by an Operating System - the low-level program that communicates with the computer hardware, including peripherals such as a mouse and a printer, as well as any apps that are present on the system. Any program input using a command line or a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is processed by sending an Application Program Interface (API) request to the Operating System. On a server, each app runs within the parameters defined by the OS as well - priority, physical memory, processing time, etcetera. This goes for both standard Internet site scripts and server-side software like a media server. In case a virtual server is generated on a physical one, there can be two independent Operating Systems, named guest OS and host OS, which means that you'll be able to set up a different software environment on the very same machine.
Multiple OS in VPS Hosting
If you choose to buy one of our virtual private server plans, you will be able to pick one of the three Linux releases which we provide for the Operating System of the servers - CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian. They are among the most popular and most reliable server OSs on the market and we offer them so that you have a choice for the software environment of your machine if you intend to install some app with specific requirements regarding the packages that need to be present on the server. We also offer three hosting Control Panels and which one of them you may use will depend on the OS that you have selected. We leave the possibility to replace the server Operating System open, so if you want to use software that requires an OS different from the one that's already present, we can always re-install the VPS. In addition, we can keep the OS up-to-date weekly by installing any security updates that may be released.
Multiple OS in Dedicated Web Hosting
We offer three Operating Systems with our dedicated server solutions - CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian. They're all different Linux distributions and we offer them not only because they are completely free and they won't increase the low price of your new web server, but also because they are really secure and stable. Each of them is backed up by a large community of web developers, so you'll be given the option to choose from many hundreds of software packages that you may install on your server if the app that you intend to use has certain requirements. The Operating System will also determine what web hosting Control Panel you can use because the Control Panels that we offer run on particular OSs only and since we want to provide you with as much versatility as possible, we offer several OSs and multiple Control Panels. In case you get a server with a given OS, we can change it upon request in the event that it turns out that you'll need a different one. We can also keep your OS updated weekly as part of our useful Managed Services upgrade.