Every single PC or server is run by an Operating System - the low-level software which interacts with the hardware equipment, including peripherals such as a mouse and a printer, together with any applications that are currently installed 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, each and every app runs within the parameters established by the OS as well - priority, physical memory, processing time, etcetera. This is valid for both standard site scripts and server-side software like a media server. If a virtual server is set up on a physical one, there can be two independent Operating Systems, referred to as guest OS and host OS, so you will be able to set up a different software environment on the same machine.
Multiple OS in Dedicated Servers
We offer three Operating Systems with our dedicated server solutions - CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian. They're all different Linux distributions and we offer them not only because they are completely free and they will not increase the cost of your new hosting server, but also because they are exceptionally secure and stable. Each one of them is supported by a large community of web developers, so you will be able to choose from a large number software packages that you could install on your server if the app that you intend 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 because we want to provide you with as much freedom as possible, we offer a couple of OSs and multiple Control Panels. In case you choose a server with a given Operating System, we will change it upon request in the event that it turns out that you will need alternative one. We can also keep your OS updated on a weekly basis as part of our useful Managed Services upgrade.