Linux is an Operating System, that isn't that common for desktop machines, but is amongst the most frequently used OSs for web servers. It is totally free, so you won't need to pay any license costs as part of your hosting payments. Linux is furthermore thought of as the most reliable OS these days and thanks to the permissions that files have as well as the file types that can be run, virus files which may infect an average computer system shall simply not be executed on a Linux-based hosting server. Moreover, the Operating System is absolutely free, so it can easily be modified without any constraints, so as to suit the requirements of the hosting provider and their clients. This also implies that needless software packages can easily be removed to make the OS lighter and quicker, that can directly result in a lot better hosting server performance. Many Linux machines have the Apache web server set up on them, due to the fact that this program is also totally free, fast and reliable. It is the most widely used web server out there and is an element of the LAMP bundle that a great many script applications, including WordPress and Joomla™, require. LAMP is an abbreviation for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.