Selecting your hosting platform

When you decide to publish your web site you will need a hosting company to store your web site on their server. Once you have selected a hosting company and during the setup of your hosting account you will be asked to select a hosting platform. Don't panic, Its easy to determine what type platform you need or want for you web site.

Ok, here's the skinny.

There are two types of hosting platforms, Windows and Linux. Both platforms support html just fine. But, if you plan to use php you should select Linux. If not, then either platform will do.

If you are unsure then just select Windows. You can change your hosting platform later by logging in to your hosting panel and selecting Linux if you decide to use PHP.

FYI, like it or not

Once you learn html and become more accomplished you are going to want to add functions to your web site. Many of the more popular and useful functions use other programming languages such as ASP, PHP and so on. So, I'm going to tell you just a little about which platform supports which.

Windows is the most popular hosting platform used today. So, if you like following the crowd, then the windows platform would be the one to select. Windows supports Microsoft's popular ASP programming language. I have never used ASP so I don't know much about it.

The Linux platform supports PHP which is a powerful server-side scripting language for creating dynamic and interactive web sites. Its gainning popularity, free, and its a great alternative to the Windows based ASP.

Why I use linux and PHP

PHP is perfectly suited for Web development and can be embedded directly into the HTML code. I use the Linux platform and many PHP scripts on my web sites.