Linux is an Operating System, which is not that common for desktop machines, but is one of the most widely used OSs for servers. It's free of charge, so you will not need to pay any license charges as part of your hosting payments. Linux is furthermore thought to be the most reliable OS out there and because of the permissions which files have as well as the file types that can be run, virus files that can infect a standard PC shall simply not be executed on a Linux-based server. Moreover, the OS is 100 % free, so it can easily be modified with no limitations, in order to match the requirements of the web hosting company and their customers. This also means that unneeded software packages can be removed to make the Operating system lighter and swifter, that may directly result in much better hosting server performance. A lot of Linux machines have the Apache web server installed on them, since this piece of software is also totally free, quick and reliable. It is the most widely used web server around and is an element of the LAMP bundle that lots of script applications, including Joomla™ and WordPress, need. LAMP is an abbreviation for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.