An Operating System is the software that communicates with the hardware of a PC and is the intermediary between all the applications and the hardware, which includes peripheral devices such as a printer, a computer mouse or a keyboard. When you run an app, it transfers requests to the OS using an API (Application Program Interface) and the contact is done through a command line or a Graphical User Interface (GUI). A lot like a personal computer, hosting servers also use an Operating System that serves as a host for the software installed on them, including script apps or server-side software such as a flash server, a VOIP server, etcetera. A virtual machine can be created on a physical one, so you'll be able to install a guest OS on it and have a different system environment compared to the physical server host Operating System.
Multiple OS in Dedicated Web Hosting
If you decide to purchase one of our dedicated servers, you'll find three Operating Systems on the registration page as we want to give you a larger choice for the system environment on your server as different applications may have certain requirements. CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian feature different modules developed by their large support communities, so you can select each of these OSs and benefit from a stable and safe hosting service. Based on your decision, you'll also have different Control Panels to choose from. Of course, we can always replace the Operating System if the one you've selected in the beginning doesn't meet the requirements of the software which you'd like to run. We can also update the OS regularly in order to keep it as risk-free as possible with our Managed Services upgrade package.