Windows vs. Linux server for wordpress

If you mean buying a linux hosting plan versus a windows host plan, the difference to the customer will be minor probably both will use a similar hosting control panel. As far as which is a better plan I would go with the linux plan, more security, usually better performance, prettier permalinks.

To make it clear, I’m not just talking about hosting plans, but also about owning a server and keeping it inhouse.

What changes for WP, from one environment to another?

anabelle,

what are the main differences between WordPress installed on a LAMP server, and a WAMP server.

From the standopint of running WordPress, there are none, except that Apache may be less stable on Windows than on Linux.

I’m trying to get a customer to buy a linux server, but they want to use Windows.

This is potentially a problem. If they want a Windows server and they actually have reasons for it, it is possible they have certain applications they want to run on it, some of which may require IIS, which means that you won’t be able to run Apache on it (unless you want to deploy Apache on a non-standard port)…

Although to be honest with you, an in-house Linux server suitable for running WordPress could actually be a decommissioned PC (as little as 256MB RAM and 20 GB hard drive is enough for a functional LAMP server), so there is no need to buy a server to run WordPress; you can pick one up in a computer junkyard.

What changes for WP, from one environment to another?

For WP proper, nothing. There is one important difference PHP-wise though. On Linux, PHP integrates with a mail transfer agent (MTA) such as Sendmail and queues ougoing mail for processing by MTA directly (much like pine and other old-time mail clients used to do); on Windows, PHP has to send mail via SMTP, which is slower than MTA queuing.

NC@WP is correct about the needed hardware to run wordpress. However, if the blog turns out to be popular, the load from MySQL could prove to be too much for low end hardware. Personally, I wouldn’t run a MySQL heavy system on minimal hardware. A pure apache environment? Sure, no problem. Even so, Linux will still require less hardware resources than a Windoze based system and will be much more reliable.

An important factor. Who’s going to manage the server? If all they have are windoze admins, then a Linux box might not be a good idea. A linux server managed by a novice has a good chance of getting hacked.

I’m a professional Linux system administrator. I have windoze XP at home as a game platform (no commercial games are being released for Linux).