Linux is an OS, that isn't that common for desktop machines, but is one of the most frequently used OSs for servers. It is 100 % free, so you will not need to pay any license fees as part of your web hosting payments. Linux is also considered to be the most reliable OS nowadays and thanks to the permissions that files have along with the file types that can be run, virus files that can infect an average PC shall simply not be executed on a Linux-based web server. In addition, the OS is free, so it could be customized with no limits, as a way to satisfy the needs of the hosting company and their customers. This also means that unwanted software packages can be removed to make the Operating system lighter and swifter, that can directly lead to a lot better hosting server performance. Numerous Linux machines have the Apache web server set up on them, since this application is also free, fast and stable. It's the most popular web server available and is part of the LAMP bundle that a lot of script apps, such as WordPress and Joomla™, need. LAMP is an abbreviation for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.