An Operating System is the software that interacts with the hardware of a computer system and serves as the intermediary between all the applications and the hardware, including peripheral devices such as a printer, a mouse or a keyboard. When you run software, it sends requests to the OS using an API (Application Program Interface) and the contact is done through a command line or a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Just like a personal computer, web servers also use an Operating System which serves as a host for all the software installed on them, including script applications or server-side software such as a flash server, a VOIP server, and so on. A virtual machine can be generated on a physical one, so you could install a guest OS on it and have a different system environment in contrast with the physical server host OS.
Multiple OS in VPS
In case you choose one of our virtual private server solutions, you'll have three different Operating Systems to select from - CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu. They're all Linux releases and we offer them instead of offering just a single OS, as the applications that you may wish to run on the server may have specific requirements regarding the software environment. Each one of the three has certain pros in terms of the available plans that you can later install, but what's common between them is that they're really stable and dependable and have huge communities which support them. The web hosting Control Panel options for the VPS accounts depend on your OS choice, so as to provide you with more flexibility. If you order the virtual server with one OS and you need another one later, our tech support team can easily reinstall the VPS with the new one in a couple of minutes. We also offer the option to maintain the Operating System on your server up-to-date on a weekly basis.
Multiple OS in Dedicated Hosting
In case you decide to acquire one of our dedicated servers, you'll find three Operating Systems on the order page since we want to give you a larger choice for the system environment on your server as different applications may have specific requirements. CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian come with different modules developed by their huge support communities, so you can select any of these OSs and benefit from a stable and secure hosting service. Based on your decision, you will also have different Control Panels to choose from. Of course, we can always change the Operating System in case the one you have selected initially does not meet the requirements of the software which you'd like to run. We can also upgrade your OS routinely to keep it as secure as possible through our Managed Services upgrade package.