Linux web hosting is named based on its operating system on which the web server database, software and coding conventions reside. The robust nature and functionality of Linux makes it’s a viable alternative to Unix-based and Microsoft operating systems. Linux is widely recognized worldwide as an enduring network, file/print and a web server operating system.

The Linux web hosting model is also called LAMP server and is based on the server having a LINUX operating system, an APACHE web server application, a PHP server markup coding application and a MYSQL database. It continues to be a viable option to reliably server web pages and run web-based applications.

The key advantages of Linux hosting basically surround the premise of security, price, functionality and reliability.

In the case of reliability, there are a great number of documented cases where Linux servers run for a year without experience difficulty or downtime. This is quite a notable accomplishment as Microsoft server have been known to require scheduled reboots to refresh the system resources.

Functionality is yet another important asset of Linux. Having evolved from almost a “hobbyist” operating system, to one which has vested interests from Sun, IBM, and other major companies, Linux now possesses phenomenal respect and power.

On the other side of the coin, the major drawbacks of Linux web hosting include its inability to accommodate Windows applications and coding conventions. ASP modules, coding and extensions that are Microsoft do not generally run from Linux web servers. This makes the website coded specifically for a Windows platform obsolete, if attempts are made to host the site on a Linux platform.