What is the difference between Linux and Unix?

What is Linux?
Linux is actually a common name for a variety of operating systems. A variety of companies market Linux and you might have heard of a few: Red Hat, Debian, Slackware, etc. Linux is good in that it is compatible with the popular programming language PHP. It is also favored by some web hosters in that in general it has a good security record and tends on average to be a stable operating system. Linux software is free.

What is Unix?
The last version mentioned is very close in comparison to the Linux versions. The main difference is the history of how the two versions came into being. Linux is an offshoot of the Unix operating system, where the Unix-based operating systems are refinements of Unix itself. Linux basically is a cousin to Unix-based operating systems. The main Unix-based operating systems are FreeBSD and OpenBSD. These operating system tend to be very stable once installed. OpenBSD also has the reputation of being very secure in that in the last six years it had only one security hole in the software itself. But OpenBSD does not allow everything; that it you have to sacrifice some flexibility for security. These operating systems are free as well. Generally Unix hosting companies are cheaper than NT (windows) hosting services, this is because the majority of Unix operating systems and software are freeware.

Without a doubt Unix/Linux (nix, **nix) type hosting services are the most popular and if you intend to use perl programs on your site then we strongly recommend Unix, although Perl is available for Windows NT it not naturally supported. Most perl scripts available on the Internet are intended for Unix/Linux and some will include functions that will only work on a Unix/Linux system, such as the use of Sendmail.

Many webmasters would agree that a combination of Perl and MySQL/mSQL on a Unix Server is the best combination for web hosting and database access, it's cheap and can support many con-current threads.

Choosing between a Windows hosting server and Unix/Linux hosts depends on the programs and scripts you want to run for your shopping cart, affiliate program, web site pages, etc. ASP, JSP, PHP, CGI, PL, CSS programs will influence the choice of a server and visa versa.