Each personal computer or server is run by an Operating System - the low-level program which communicates with the hardware equipment, including peripheral devices such as a mouse or a printer, together with any applications that are present on the system. Any program input through 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, each application runs within the parameters specified by the OS as well - priority, physical memory, processing time, etc. This goes for both standard Internet site scripts and server-side software like a media server. In case a virtual server is set up on a physical one, there can be two separate Operating Systems, named guest OS and host OS, so 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 go for one of our VPS server plans, you shall be able to pick one of the three Linux distributions which we supply for the Operating System of the servers - CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian. They're among the most popular and most dependable server OSs on the market and we offer them in order to give you a choice for the software environment of your machine in case that you want to install some app with particular requirements regarding the packages that must be present on the web hosting server. We also offer three hosting Control Panels and which one of them you'll be able to use depends on the OS that you've picked. We leave the option to change the server Operating System open, so if you want to use software that requires an OS different from the one you have, we can always re-install the VPS. We can also keep the OS up-to-date on a weekly basis by installing all of the security updates which may be released.
Multiple OS in Dedicated Servers
If you decide to get one of our dedicated servers, you'll find three Operating Systems on the order page as we want to give you a wider choice regarding the system environment on your server as different applications could have particular requirements. CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian contain different modules developed by their huge support communities, so you can select each of these OSs and enjoy a stable and safe Internet hosting service. Depending on your selection, you'll also have different Control Panels to choose from. Needless to say, we can always replace the Operating System in case the one you've selected at first doesn't meet the requirements of the software which you intend to run. We can also update the OS routinely in order to keep it as risk-free as possible with our Managed Services upgrade package.