Unlike Windows, Linux users must have an account. This account is accorded permissions such as reading and writing files and executing programs. Accounts are combined into groups to simplify their management. Users who are members of a given group may be assigned additional permissions that smooth the process of accessing common files. Let’s take a closer look at how Linux handles these users. A future article examines permissions and groups.

Linux provides two categories of users, ordinary users essentially restricted to working with files of their own creation, and the superuser, or root, who administers the system and is allowed to do almost anything. The real situation is of course somewhat more complex. For example, ordinary users may be accorded restricted access to additional files deemed to be of interest to everyone. The superuser can assign some privileges to deputies reducing an otherwise crushing workload.

The root user is the only one authorized to run the adduser or the more complicated useradd command. If you have downloaded Damn Small Linux you can test these commands on your Windows computer. In response to the adduser command Linux requests the user name, the password, and then a few optional fields that may be skipped. An organization with many users has or should have a policy for composing user names.

The password is a key element in protecting the computer’s security. We could easily write an article discussing the password and password selection. Remember that Linux distinguishes between lower-case and upper-case letters. If you’re new to computing you may try working with easily remembered passwords at first. But protecting your account and account information depends on your unguessable passwords.

When Linux creates your account it also creates a directory whose name is easy to remember. If your account name is lucy then your working directory is /home/lucy . I’m leaving it up to you to find out the location of lucy’s working directory for Windows systems.

Damn Small Linux shares an interesting feature with many other Linux systems. The system administrator can provide new users with copies of some directories and folders by placing them in the /etc/skel directory before launching the adduser command.

How is the system administrator supposed to handle creating dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of new users, for example at the beginning of the semester? He or she won’t have the time to undertake this backbreaking task. And there is no way that the root password should be revealed to the employee who is assigned this task. The answer is simple: write a program to create these new accounts. This program can even spiff up the account creation interface and perhaps grab some necessary information from sources such as the student registration file.

Of course we don’t want to create users without the possibility of removing them. The live process is fairly complicated and includes removing the user’s password from the /etc/passwd directory, removing all files from the user directory, and other activities such as making backups of essential information. The next article discusses the related concepts of permissions and groups.

If you’re an amateur to the web world specially web hosting then there are many decisions you have to make. Hosting provides the concrete base on which every E-business works as well as blooms. There are numerous choices available in the market but it’s the Linux and Windows hosting which heads the list. Everyone has their own knowledge bag according to which they govern their business but which is profitable to you may not be profitable for someone else. That’s why majority of the people are in trouble waters while choosing the hosting server for their business. Let’s delve into each hosting and get the clear picture. The usual cost involved in running a server generally doesn’t affect the cost of complete web hosting package. Windows Hosting is owned and developed by Microsoft whereas Linux is an open source and free too. The crux is that using Windows Hosting can be more expensive at times but it has its own benefits too.

According to the common myth people assume that because their computer runs Windows they too have to buy Windows hosting package. But this myth is absolutely wrong. You can normally access your web account through FTP or a control panel and both the servers support these methods. But the major difference lies in the FTP commands that are somewhat different in Linux and Windows. In short, occasionally when you try to get your FTP program to do something it returns an error message. Still, this won’t happen very often. Linux and Windows Hosting provide same features that include PHP, mySQL, POP3 and many more. The major difference arises when you want to create your site using Access, Windows Streaming Media, ASP, .NET environment, FrontPage or any other Microsoft technologies. Then you’re bound to use a Windows as your hosting server. However, in Linux there is a limited support for these technologies and what all are available are very expensive. That’s why it’s wise to think twice before selecting a hosting server as shifting from one server to another can be very hard.

The next points to argue are the reliability and stability of the servers. Windows is far more insecure in comparison to Linux. Windows is widely used operating system for home PC’s but not Linux. However, Linux is equally insecure as whooping number of successful hack attempts have been made on it till now. Thus, in the end we can say that the security of both the servers usually depends upon the competency of the system administrators. Herein, if you’re security minded then you’ll choose the best and secured hosting company irrespective of the chosen server. Now discussing the performance there isn’t much difference between the two. Linux is faster than Windows as Linux is loaded with extendable implementation. Whereas Windows tries to provide “‘all in one” package which isn’t fruitful at times. There isn’t much difference between both the servers but in terms of performance Linux outshines Windows.

Thus, if you’re hunting for the server for your E-business then think before you jump on any conclusion and don’t leave any stone unturned.

A shell is the command interpreter program that serves as an interface between some users and the operating system itself. We say some users because most users rely on the graphical user interface. The Windows shell is the DOS command line interface accessed by clicking on Run and then entering the cmd command. The Windows graphical user interface is Explorer. This article describes the Damn Small Linux shell interface and several utilities, useful programs that may be launched from the shell. A subsequent article will describe the corresponding graphical user interface.
Why would anyone want to bother with a shell when the prettier, easier-to-learn and easier-to-use graphical interface is available? The answer is: It depends who you are and what you want to do. For system administrators or their associates it’s often much less cumbersome to use the shell rather than the graphical user interface. While Damn Small Linux commands may be quite arcane, they can be very powerful. And efficient. The Linux tools for performing administrative and other technical tasks admittedly take time to learn and master. But it does the job and does it well. In all fairness, many Windows systems administrators often apply command-line utilities. But they don’t have a powerful shell to help them do their work.
Historically Unix used the Bourne shell, the C shell based on the C programming language, and the Korn shell. Linux’s most widely used shell is Bash, also spelled BASH, the (Bourne-Again Shell). Damn Small Linux offers many shells but most people go with Bash both to communicate interactively with the operating system and to write programs known as shell scripts. If you program in Linux no matter which programming language you use you should learn some Bash specifics.
Utilities enable you to handle some very sophisticated processing. You can think of them as commands or as prewritten programs. Unix-Linux people often send the output of one command or utility to another command or utility for further processing. For example, the ps command displays active processes. It tends to generate voluminous output, especially in a busy system. Let’s say that you are interested only in the processes associated with a given terminal. You send (the technical term is pipe, expressed by the | character) the output of the ps command to the grep utility which looks for patterns within the input. You code a single line, multipart command to obtain the list of processes associated with that particular terminal. Unix and Linux are well known for elegant solutions. In contrast the Windows solution to this information need is much more clumsy.
The grep utility has many other uses including validating e-mail addresses. Let’s say that your web site asks potential subscribers to furnish their e-mail accounts when signing up for a newsletter. A sophisticated but relatively short statement coded in grep could validate e-mail accounts.
Other Damn Small Linux text processing utilities include the related egrep and fgrep commands, mawk a pattern scanning and text processing language, sed an editor that handles large files, and diff a utility that compares files. DSL provides utilities that compress and archive files, and a wide range of other utilities. If you need them, these Linux utilities can be quite useful and time-saving.
Our next subject is Linux programming support.

Can you remember the 1992 Janet Jackson song entitled The Best Things In Life Are Free? You might even remember the 1956 Hollywood movie of the same name. In any case do not guarantee that you will find Damn Small Linux and our associated tutorials to be among the best things in your life. On the other hand we do guarantee that they are both completely free. Well, wait a minute. They are both free, but…

You may have to shell out some of your hard-earned cash to learn Linux. This is particularly true if you are downloading the software and running the tutorials on your home computer. Yes, you will have to pay for an Internet connection at least for the time spent downloading the files. By today’s bloated standards Damn Small Linux is really small; it weighs in at a mere 50 Megabytes. Downloading this software distribution is really quick, especially if you have a high-speed connection. And yet as we all know, sometime during the following month your Internet Service Provider will want money.

After downloading Damn Small Linux you won’t need the Internet to run it. But you may want to activate one or both of the Internet browsers that are part of the Damn Small Linux distribution. And you may want to download additional applications; there are lots of them. Because Damn Small Linux is so small you should still have scads of disk space available.

Your Damn Small Linux costs don’t end with the Internet. I would be surprised to learn that the electricity powering your computer is free. Surely the longer your days and nights spent in front of the computer the higher your light and heat bill. Furthermore, the more time you spend on Linux the more money you may end up spending on snacks, new eyeglasses, and taxis when you miss the bus to work because you just couldn’t tear yourself away from the computer in time. I think you get my drift. But we repeat. Damn Small Linux, this website, and many of the references on the web are free. Should you outgrow Damn Small Linux the larger versions of Linux are free, or at least quite inexpensive when compared to ostensibly similar versions of Microsoft Windows.

Most people don’t run operating systems in and of themselves but rather for the applications they enable. Reason number two: Damn Small Linux provides lots of free applications as discussed in our next article.

Let’s start by mentioning a few facts that can be very disconcerting to die-hard Linux and Unix fans. Serious computer viruses appeared first in Unix systems. And arguably the worst computer virus attack in history occurred on Unix systems about twenty years ago. The good news is that the lessons learned from this attack were integrated into the constantly evolving Unix and Linux systems. Of course, to some extent they have been integrated into protecting Windows systems, and that’s also good news.

One reason that Linux surpasses Windows for virus resistance is that Linux is open source. When an attack occurs hundreds or perhaps thousands of techies start working on solutions and post them to the Internet. You won’t have to wait for an anti-virus company to come up with something.

What other factors make Linux systems more virus resistant? For a virus to take effect it must be part of a running program. Simply opening an attachment in the Microsoft Windows environment does the trick. The last time (pun intended) I opened an electronic greeting card on my Windows computer I was rewarded with a nasty virus. It took quite some time to remove it even with the aid of technical support. Linux systems won’t launch the virus unless the user reads the email, saves the attachment, modifies the appropriate permission assigning execution permission to the attachment, and then explicitly executes the attachment. Unless all these steps happen the virus remains in quarantine. While an educated Linux user could carry out all these steps unleashing the virus this unhappy state of events doesn’t occur often in properly organized systems.

Another limits virus impact in the Linux world. Ordinary Linux users don’t have permission to do a lot. Even if they unleashed a virus it usually wouldn’t go very far. Getting beyond the individual computer requires administrative power – the kind held by Root Users in Linux and Administrators in Windows. Regular users of Linux are usually not accorded root permission. In contrast, a newly installed Windows system automatically creates the first user as an Administrator. In our mind this is asking for trouble.

Just think – a regular Windows user has permission to install files that can run amok and destroy lots of good things. It seems that in Windows the operating system, the applications, and the data are inextricably intertwined. As if they were asking for trouble.

I have read that bananas are in danger. It looks like biodiversity is a thing of the past in banana-land or at least in the commercial banana world. So there is some chance that one powerful banana virus will make banana splits a thing of the past. The very diversity of Linux systems offers some protection. And it’s a LAMP onto the world as discussed in the next two articles.

Linux

There are many heated debates and arguments in the world of computers and technology these days. Some of these debates have been around since the computers first became popular amongst average, everyday people. Issues like choosing a Mac or a PC, or choosing an Apple operating system or a Windows operating system have been highly debated for years

Damn Small Linux can be an ideal platform for supporting a wide range of programming languages. You can even program directly from the command line via a programming shell such as Bash. Major programming languages used in this environment include C, C++, and Java. If you are developing for the Internet you may want to use PHP, a web programming language and MySQL, a language for database system development. All these programming languages are also available in the Windows environment. So the question arises, why would you want to program under Linux rather than under Windows?
Many web developers and Internet service providers feel that Linux provides a more stable web site environment than does Windows. The most widely used web server, Apache, is available under both these operating systems but its new features, security enhancements, and bug fixes always are made available first on the Open Source (LAMP) version. And then they filter down to the Windows version. At the time of this writing the Windows version of Apache has problems with its cryptographic functions.
While programming languages are essentially the same across these two operating systems, their libraries are quite different. Basically, when you write complicated programs you want to make use of as much prewritten software as possible to reduce your programming and debugging effort. One example is handling the graphical user interface. As programmers often say, why reinvent the wheel? Linux provides a wider choice of libraries and graphical user interface toolkits.
When you program in Linux it is often fairly easy to port your programs to the Windows environment. Unfortunately, the inverse is rarely true. Of course as Linux systems become more popular, you will find more and more Windows-based programming systems that enable you to convert your programs to run under Linux. To do so makes clear economic sense.
Program conversion tools may be fairly difficult to develop. For example, executing programs must access the actual computer hardware. As you may imagine Linux and Windows programs access hardware quite differently. The modules that manage hardware access are called drivers. Linux drivers tend to be of higher quality than Windows drivers.
These two operating systems differ substantially in the way they manage programs during their execution. In other articles we discussed Linux’s increased security compared to Windows. We conclude this article by repeating a point that we have often made; you can run Damn Small Linux and its associated applications on very reduced hardware. You can do Linux, PHP, and MySQL development on old computers, ones that may have seemed ready for the garbage heap. In contrast many Windows competitors such as SQL Server Developer Edition require substantially more powerful computers, the kind of computers that people purchase for one or a few thousand dollars. When your programs will be used by dozens of people simultaneously, you will need powerful hardware. Don’t forget the operating system; can you guess which one we recommend? Our next subject is the graphical user interface.

Damn Small Linux is an excellent tool for learning Linux commands and running the Linux operating system. But what if you don’t plan to be a computer nerd; can this software still be useful? The answer is a definite yes; you can make use of this tiny operating system whether or not you want to learn the sometimes gruesome details of operating systems. This article introduces the text editors that come with your free Damn Small Linux that runs on even obsolete Windows computers. You can use these applications to compose simple text or programs of any level of complexity.
Once you have downloaded and installed Damn Small Linux there are several equivalent ways of launching its text editors. You can click on the DSL button in the lower-left hand corner or on the Apps icon toward the top of the screen. Then open the Editors: there are four, Beaver, Nano, Notepad, and vi (actually vim). We will look at these editors in order plus an additional one.
Beaver is my choice for creating and editing the text files used in my Damn Small Linux tutorials. The name Beaver stands for Beaver is an Early AdVanced EditoR which is the kind of joke that many Linux and Unix people find funny. This editor is particularly useful for programming and web page editing. Beaver’s special features include color coding and the ability to convert text to Upper Case, Lower Case or to capitalize the first letter of every word. You can convert text among the following formats: Unix, DOS, and Mac. Programmers will be glad to know that Beaver formats code for the following programming languages: C/C++, HTML, Perl, JavaScript, PHP, and Bash. Unfortunately there is no Help function.
The nano program is especially used for email messages. It stems from the widely used Pico email program that is not available for some versions of Linux. I have not worked with nano but am told that many Linux and Unix people like it.
What the Damn Small Linux people call Notepad is actually another text processor that is similar to the DOS/Windows Notepad. I haven’t used it because Beaver is more powerful, and just about as easy to use.
The final application in this group is VIM, vi IMproved. The original vi was a very-widely used text editor for Unix and Linux systems. Today almost all Unix and Linux people work with other, more sophisticated text editors. When I teach Linux on systems other than Damn Small Linux I teach a reduced version of vi. This editor is cumbersome, but you make like the improved version. Damn Small Linux offers you a choice.
The Office folder includes Ted, a word processor which is compatible with Microsoft Word. Ted saves documents in RTF (rich text format) that can be read by Microsoft Word and other word processors including Open Office. Ted and Beaver belong to different worlds; you can’t take documents back and forth between these two applications.

Linux people like to claim that directories are really just another type of file. This statement can be misleading. We saw in a previous article that you create a file using a file editor. We will see later in this article how to create a directory.

So just what is a Linux directory? A directory is a collection that may include one or more directories, one or more files, or in fact be empty. You may think of a directory as a computerized file folder or loose-leaf notebook that contains dividers (themselves directories) and pages (files.) Just like a notebook page may not contain a divider, a Linux file may not contain a directory.

Up to now our comments about Linux directories hold for Windows directories as well. Now let’s take a look at some differences between these two systems. First come the naming conventions. Linux always distinguishes between lower-case and upper-case characters in directory names. Microsoft Windows does not. For example, Linux treats pay12june and Pay12june are as two different directories, as different as the directories pay12june and heighho. These directory names were used as file names in the previous article. While Linux does have some reserved directory and file names, in general one cannot tell by the name whether it is a file name or a directory name. So be careful. Linux helps you out here ‘ the ls command that lists the contents of a given directory usually displays files and directories in different colors.

Directories are hierarchical. They resemble a tree or a family tree. But unlike a tree (or Microsoft Windows) Linux has only one root. The root, designated as / lies at the top, rather than at the bottom, of the hierarchy. Right underneath the root directory you will find several subdirectories. For example, the /home directory is a child of / the root directory. The number and names of the first-level subdirectories vary from one version of Linux to another. For example, some Linux distributions include a /root directory while others do not. The /root directory (or subdirectory, both terms are used) is a child of /, the actual root directory.

The /home directory is an important directory. It is divided into subdirectories, one for each user. We like to work with Damn Small Linux, a free version of Linux that runs on the Windows desktop and requires only 50 Megabytes of disk space. Damn Small Linux automatically creates a user called dsl whose home directory is /home/dsl ; a working area essentially reserved for this user. All Linux versions subdivide the /home directory into user subdirectories according to this simple naming convention.

Linux provides several commands to process directories. For example, the mkdir command creates a directory. The rmdir command removes a directory, but in the simplest case only when it is empty. The cd command changes the working directory, the directory in which you are positioned. The pwd (print working directory) command displays (not prints) the working directory. Beginners should run this command often to reduce errors. For example, if you, the dsl user, think that you are positioned in the /home/dsl directory but in fact are positioned in the / directory you won’t be able save your files with a simple command. Why? Because you lack the requisite permission, the subject of our next article.

Could Ubuntu Linux rule the future over Mac OS X or even Windows?

Ok. I must admit I just created a computer box with Ubuntu 9. I have been so impressed with this operating system, I started to wonder what was the future of Mac OS X or Windows. I don

Ubuntu is a community developed operating system, supported by Canonical, Mark Shuttleworth’s company.

Most people purchase computers to run programs – whether it is to send email, browse the web, meet friends of girlfriends on msn messenger, do office work or just play solitaire.
People buy computers to use programs for their functionality not to run operating systems be in Microsoft Windows, the new Microsoft Vista product, the Mac Operations Systems or the various Linux Operating Systems – be they Ubuntu Linux, Mandiva, Knoppix or Debian.
At the heart of most computer users is functionality and usability. It is as simple as that. It is an interesting situation that the Microsoft Corporation controls the vast lion’s share of the computer operating system market. Indeed it even has a major share holding of the next player in line – Apple with the Macintosh OS (Operating System).
What are the issues?
1) Linux is not really free. Linux, in its various flavors or distros, is given free of charge, whether it is on a cd, DVD or downloaded. You can install the program on your own compute or various computers, at no charge to yourself whatsoever
This is in direct contrast to a commercial product such as Microsoft Windows or the new Microsoft Vista which you to purchase a boxed version or a valid license which comes with most computer systems purchased. This license which comes on most new computers as a matter of course could be referred to as the “Microsoft Computer Tax” and is not an option you can forego, to reduce the purchase of your new compute – whether or not you wish to use another operating system such as Linux.
Linux is given free of charge to install. This is not a shareware or time limited version of the product which requires a registration fee after a period of time.
If you require product support or training commercial organizations do exist which will charge you for support of that product or for training or both. Indeed it can be said that Microsoft itself charges for product support, Symantec the antivirus / security organization charges for basic support by product, subscription fees – sometimes automatic subscription fees and 900 phone number and charge card “Priority Support”.
Indeed you would not expect your local school or technical college to provide computer and compute software training free of charge.
2) Linux is complex and will force you to learn the Linux command line,
Not true simple as that. The various Linux distros all have GUI (Graphic User Interfaces) just like Microsoft Windows, Windows used to come as command line DOS. Windows users use pull down windows to operate the software. So can and do most Linux users
3) Compared to Windows, Installing Linux is Difficult
- The vast majority of computer users are computer neophytes and beginners.
These computer users purchase computers with the operations system Microsoft Windows or the Macintosh Operating System installed on their new computers. These people could not install the Windows Operating system and the device drivers necessary if their life depended on it. How the situation of a Linux is based computer any different.
It is only a matter of time until new computers come preinstalled with the Linux operating system. Imagine if Henry Ford had been told not to build new cars since there were few good roads available in America.
4) My Computer Hardware Just Works Under Windows
5) Again untrue in many cases and soon to be less of an issue as more and more computers will come preinstalled with a Linux operating system. Already Dell Computer (which was a Microsoft stalwart) is selling Linux based laptops. Interestingly the response to the Ubuntu Linux dell notebooks is quite positive, If you think Linux hardware compatibility is an issue try upgrading to the new Microsoft Vista from your previous Microsoft Windows product. You will find to your surprise that few if little of computer hardware are supported. You may have upgraded to the new Vista and found you have either no sound, good video or even internet connections via your network adapter device or wireless network adapter. And try undoing your upgrade to get back to your working windows version – it cannot be done.
Lastly you may say I run Windows since all of the programs I use are available only on the Windows operations system – since that is the dominant player in the market. You may well surmise that since Windows is the more than dominant player in the computer OS market that software developers write their product almost exclusively for the windows operations system and that market.
This is true. If you are using a specialized product for your job, industry, situation or preference you may well be locked in.
In the end most people buy and use computers for functionality and use. Most people use their computers for internet browsing, communication – whether it by email or messenger services (M.S.N., Yahoo, Skype, Eyeball Chat), downloading and burning music and in more than many cases for playing nothing more than computer games such as simple solitaire.
In these cases the functionality of Linux and its program base easily allows for this. Indeed many of the cutting edge programs and computer services come out of left field by computer software developers and enthusiasts whose preference of Computer Operating System is guess what – Linux in its various forms.

The Basics of Linux & Windows : Linux (and its close relation
Unix) and Windows 2000 (and its close cousin Windows NT) are
types of software (known as operating systems) that web servers
use to do the kind of things that web servers do. You do not
need to know any real detail of either to make a decision as to
which you need but here a few guidelines.

Just because you use a windows desktop PC doesn’t mean you have
to opt for Windows web hosting (and the reverse is true as
well). The operating system you use on your desktop has little
to do with your choice of web hosts. As long as you understand
how to use your FTP or web publishing software, your can use
either operating system.

But what is important is that you know what you want your
website to do and what you want to offer on it. This is what
will ultimately help determine the type of web hosting that will
work best for you. As mentioned earlier, interactive websites
usually rely on ASP, PHP, or Perl type languages.

Linux Web Hosting or Windows 2000 Web Hosting ? Make your Choice
!

When it comes to Web hosting, Linux has, for some time, been
widely considered the best OS for Web servers. It’s typically
found to be the most reliable, stable and efficient system and,
as such, it’s commonly used for the demanding environment of Web
and mail servers. Indeed,Most of the clients websites of aalpha
NET runs on the Linux OS precisely because of this traditional
stability.

The million-dollar question is what application are you looking
to use for your hosting? Consider the tools and scripting
languages you plan to use – if you use PHP, Perl or MySQL, Linux
is the way forward. If apps are Microsoft-specific, then Windows
is what you need.

If your site, like most web sites, is what might be termed
“brochure-ware” then Linux servers are ideal. By brochure-ware I
mean a site that offers the kind of information that in the past
might have been provided on paper in the form of brochures,
newsletters or data sheets. Brochure-ware sites will offer some
interaction through enquiry forms and can certainly incorporate
online purchasing and other routine e-commerce functions.

If however your site incorporates an online searchable database
or interactive chat facilities then Windows 2000 or NT will be a
better bet in most cases. It will cost a bit more but you’ll get
that back in reduced development time and simply better
functionality.

The following are the advantages of using Linux based web server
compared to Windows based web server :

Stable: Linux/Unix operating systems has traditionally been
believed to be very stable and robust. A web site housed on a
Linux operating system will have very high up-time (of the order
of 99.9%). Of course, other factors such as power supply,
network admin skills, and network load etc. also matter when it
comes to maintaining the system uptime.

Low cost of ownership: The Linux OS comes free of cost (or at
very insignificant cost, usually cost of distribution). Also, it
has full fledged server, and desk top applications that comes
free along with the OS. These server applications (such as FTP,
Web Server, DNS Server, File Server etc.) being free, are also
very stable.

Ease of use : When it comes to web hosting, it is easy to host
on Linux web servers. The process of uploading and hosting is
almost same for both Linux and Windows web servers. If you want
to use a Windows based tool such as Front Page for uploading a
web site on to a Linux based web server, make sure that the
Front Page extensions are enabled. This is only required if you
are uploading using HTTP feature (http://www.yourwebsite.com) of
Front Page. Front Page also makes it possible to upload a web
site using FTP. You need to select ftp://www.yourwebsite.com for
up loading using front page FTP option. Note that if you select
“Front Page Extensions” during web site design, you must enable
Front Page extensions on a Linux web server also. These days,
all Linux web servers are coming with installable Front Page
extensions, and this should pose no problem for hosting on a
Linux platform.

You can use almost all types of file extensions (or scripts)
when using Linux web server. Commonly, the following extensions
are supported: .cgi, .html, .htm, .pl, .php, .shtml, .xml, and
others. Basically it means that you can host web sites that use
different types of server side scripts including .cgi, .pl,
..php, and .asp (with plug-in).

Easy to move between hosts : A web site designed to be hosted on
a Linux based web server can be hosted on a Windows web server
easily, where as the reverse is not always true.

Most widely used : Linux/Unix based web hosting is most widely
used compared to Windows based web hosting.

Scalability : A web site is dynamic. Usually, a web site starts
with a few pages of html and grows over a period of time to suit
the customers requirements. It is preferable to design a web
site keeping this requirements in mind. A web site designed for
compatibility with a Linux/Unix based web server meets the
scalability requirement easily without making any site wide
design changes.

On the downside, Linux based web server is not fully compatible
with Microsoft technologies. If you are using any specialized
applications or VB for development of your web site, it is
preferable to host with a Windows based web server.

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All Web Hosts.

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