WHat platform is better for a web server..

Hi, I just asked that same question a few weeks ago... refer to the discussion below:

http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=6447

UNIX, without a doubt.

Most people consider Unix better.

Consider this.... Microsoft owns Hotmail.com, and hotmail.com is running apache (under unix)! ... So which one is better? take a guess :D :D

cheers,
:beer:

Hm... take my word back... I just knew that hotmail.com now runs on IIS 5.0 ... hm... since when? I knew last time when Microsoft had problems when they tried to switch from Linux to NT ... so they decided to switch it back to Linux again... I guess now hotmail.com is on NT again... forgive my ignorance...

cheers,
:beer:

UNIX is a better solution for hosting. It was built with multiple users in mind, and has evolved over 20+ years to suit this purpose.

Plus, there is an absolute avalanche of free UNIX OS's, tools, servers, and other goodies available. Right off the bat you have to pay a few hundred bucks just for a Windows license.

Also, UNIX servers running Apache serve the vast majority of web sites on the internet today. And it isn't just because it is cheap. UNIX and Apache can run forever without a crash or reboot unless you do something to break them.

Hope that helps,

Brian

Although UNIX is unquestionably better, not offering NT applications means you are saying goodbye to up to 50% of your potential customers.

Do it yourself or find someone to partner with. Microsoft has trained its users well.

Franc

Originally posted by dektong
Consider this.... Microsoft owns Hotmail.com, and hotmail.com is running apache (under unix)! ... So which one is better? take a guess :D :D

I don't know the complete story, but if I remember correctly Hotmail was running on Unix when it was aquired by Microsoft, and although it took some time they eventually switched to NT. Here are the headers from an HTML request (taken just moments ago):

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 23:06:26 GMT
Connection: close
Set-Cookie: BrowserTest=Success%3f; domain=.passport.com; path=/
Expires: Mon, 01 Jan 1999 00:00:00 GMT
Pragma: no-cache
Cache-Control: no-cache
Content-Type: text/html
HMServer: H: LC3-LFD84.law13.internal.hotmail.com V: WIN2K 09.02.47.0002 i D: Mar 1 2001 18:24:57

Chris,

I believe the frontend web servers are now running NT; the backend workhorses are still running UNIX. IIRC they're running BSD (FreeBSD I think). It used to be a Solaris/FreeBSD set up.

I actually saw the Hotmail set up a while ago. Pretty amazing stuff. Racks and Racks of 1U servers with the covers off for add'l cooling and to save space. A sea of servers. Does justice to the word 'server farm'.

Cheers,

...maybe, some kind of off-topic: we can't say, which one is definitely better, but can decide, wich is more suitable. That's my point of view. ;) [logo of Penguin goes here ;)]