Once you have decided on getting your own dedicated server, you need to choose on the server operating system which can depend on the availability, price and employee expertise.
Contrary to the world of the desktop pc market Microsoft Windows does not rule the waves. Variations of open source operating systems abound including Linux and FreeBSD. These are often included at no extra charge to the client. Commercial operating systems include Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008, can be provided if the dedicated server host has a Microsoft SPLA agreement.
A commercial version of Linux is Redhat Enterprise or RHEL popular with web hosts and available on a monthly fee basis. With Red Hat there is a subscription which allows for Operating System updates through the Red Hat Network using an application called up2date which is rpm based. Updating is largely automatic This can set to automatic.
Other operating systems are available from the open source community at no cost. These include CentOS, Fedora Core, Debian, and many other Linux distributions or BSD Unixsystems such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD.
Support for any of the operating systems above mainly depends on the type of management offered with a particular dedicated server plan. Operating system support may include updates to the core system in order to that the latest patches and security fixes are installed.
Non Microsoft Servers tend to have a web based control panel to operate the server, especially if the intended use of the server is web hosting. Cpanel which includes Web Host Manager allows for the maintenance ofthe core operationg system as well as the common userand management tasks.











