Each notebook or desktop or web server is run by an Operating System - the low-level program which communicates with the hardware, including peripheral devices such as a mouse or a printer, and any apps that are 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 OS. On a web server, every single app runs within the parameters established by the OS as well - priority, physical memory, processing time, etcetera. This is valid for both standard Internet site scripts and server-side software such as a media server. When a virtual server is created on a physical one, there can be two separate Operating Systems, named guest OS and host OS, so that you'll be able to set up a different software environment on the very same machine.
Multiple OS in VPS Servers
In case you decide to purchase one of our VPS server packages, you will be able to choose one of the three Linux distributions which we offer for the Operating System of the servers - CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian. These are among the most preferred and most stable server OSs available on the market and we offer them so that you have a choice for the software environment of your machine if you wish to install some application with specific requirements regarding the packages that need to be present on the hosting server. We also offer three web hosting Control Panels and which one of them you could use will depend on the OS that you've selected. We leave the option to change the server Operating System open, so if you want to use an application that requires an OS different from the one you have, we can always reinstall the VPS. In addition, we can keep the OS up-to-date on a weekly basis by installing any security updates which may be released.
Multiple OS in Dedicated Servers
We offer three Operating Systems with our dedicated server solutions - CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian. They are all different Linux distributions and we offer them not only because they're completely free and they won't increase the cost of your new web hosting server, but also because they are very secure and stable. Each one of them is supported by a vast community of developers, so you'll be given the option to choose from thousands of software packages that you may install on your server if the app that you want to use has certain requirements. The Operating System will also determine what internet hosting Control Panel you can use since the Control Panels that we offer are compatible with particular OSs only and since we want to give you as much versatility as possible, we offer a couple of OSs and multiple Control Panels. In case 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 useful Managed Services upgrade.