Every single personal computer or web server is run by an Operating System - the low-level software that interacts with the hardware equipment, including peripheral devices such as a mouse and a printer, as well as any apps that are present on the 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, any app runs within the parameters established by the OS as well - priority, physical memory, processing time, and so on. This is valid for both standard website scripts and server-side software such as a media server. If a virtual server is generated on a physical one, there can be two separate Operating Systems, named guest OS and host OS, so you will be able to set up a different software environment on the very same machine.
Multiple OS in VPS Servers
If you pick one of our VPS server plans, you'll have as many as three different Operating Systems to select from - CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu. They're all Linux distributions and we offer them rather than offering just one OS, because the apps that you may wish to run on the server may have specific requirements regarding the software environment. Each of these three has certain pros with regard to the available packages that you may later on install, but what is common between them is that they are very secure and reliable and have huge communities which support them. The web hosting Control Panel alternatives for the VPS accounts depend on your OS choice, so as to provide you with more flexibility. In case 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 a couple of minutes. We also offer the option to maintain the Operating System on your server up-to-date weekly.
Multiple OS in Dedicated Servers
We offer three Operating Systems with our dedicated server plans - CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian. They're all different Linux distributions and we offer them not only because they're cost-free and they won't increase the low price of your new web hosting server, but also because they are outstandingly secure and stable. Each one of them is backed up by a big community of web developers, so you'll be able to choose from a large number software packages that you may install on your server in case the application that you would like to employ has specific requirements. The Operating System will also determine what web hosting Control Panel you can use because 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 choose a server with a given Operating System, we can change it upon request if it turns out that you need another one. We could also keep the OS updated on a weekly basis as part of the useful Managed Services upgrade.