Each and every desktop or notebook or web server is run by an Operating System - the low-level software which interacts with the hardware, including peripheral devices such as a mouse or a printer, together with any apps that are currently installed on your 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 application runs within the parameters set by the OS as well - priority, physical memory, processing time, etcetera. This goes for both standard website scripts and server-side software such as a media server. If a virtual server is created on a physical one, there can be two independent Operating Systems, named guest OS and host OS, which means that you will be able to set up a different software environment on the same machine.
Multiple OS in Dedicated Web Hosting
We offer three Operating Systems with our dedicated server plans - CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian. They are all different Linux distributions and we offer them not only because they are 100 % free and they won't increase the low price of your new server, but also because they are very stable and secure. Each one of them is backed up by a vast community of developers, so you will be able to choose from a myriad of software packages that you can install on your server if the app that you intend to work with has certain requirements. The Operating System will also determine what internet hosting Control Panel you can use since the Control Panels that we offer run on particular OSs only and since we would like to provide you with as much adaptability as possible, we offer multiple OSs and multiple Control Panels. In case you get a server with a certain Operating System, we will change it upon request if it turns out that you need a different one. We can also keep your OS updated on a weekly basis as a part of the useful Managed Services upgrade.