An Operating System is the basic software which controls a PC. It handles the way your hardware behaves, the communication with peripheral devices like a monitor, a printer or a keyboard, the allocation of memory between various applications, along with the prioritization of apps when several run simultaneously. Every program that's installed on a computer system functions by sending requests to the OS for various services using an application program interface (API). The interaction with the OS can be performed via a Graphical User Interface (GUI) or a command line. In the web hosting world, the OS is what runs a hosting server along with all the software installed on it, which includes not only website scripts, but, in addition every other application for example a VOIP or a game server. If there are virtual machines created, they employ a guest OS that is run on the server host OS.
Multiple OS in VPS Servers
In case you pick one of our VPS server packages, you'll have as many as three different Operating Systems to pick from - CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu. They are all Linux distributions and we offer them rather than offering just a single OS, because the apps that you may want to run on the server could have specific requirements for the software environment. Each of these three has some advantages with regard to the available packages that you could afterwards install, but what is common between them is that they're very secure and reliable and have huge communities that support them. The internet hosting Control Panel options for the VPS accounts depend on your OS choice, so as to give you more flexibility. If you order the virtual server with one OS and you need a different one later, our tech support team can easily reinstall the VPS with the new one in just a few minutes. We also offer you the option to maintain the Operating System on your server up-to-date on a weekly basis.
Multiple OS in Dedicated Servers
In case you decide to purchase one of our dedicated servers, you will find three Operating Systems on the registration page because we want to give you a wider choice with regard to the system environment on your machine as different applications could have certain requirements. CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian come with different modules developed by their vast support communities, so you can select each of these OSs and enjoy a stable and risk-free web hosting service. Based on your choice, you will also have different Control Panels to choose from. Needless to say, we can always change the Operating System if the one you've selected in the beginning doesn't meet the requirements of the software that you'd like to run. We can also upgrade the OS routinely in order to keep it as risk-free as possible through our Managed Services upgrade package.