Lin or win hosting, Sw required for local test CPU

[Blacksheep]

I have a two part question that will require a multi-part answer.

When deciding on a host for an e-commerce web site;

Linux or windows? I know their are animate believers for each camp but would like to hear constructive reasons (Financial, ease of use, reliability, etc, etc.) for one over the other.

What software is required on a local computer to fully test a web site before I FTP it to the hosting site? keep in mind I would like answer for both Linux and Win.

Is any additional software needed for local test computer if the following is used on the site:

PHP, MySQL, ASP, etc, etc.

I take back all the trash I have talked about "Code Jockeys" the last 30 years. I have lots of hardware experience, but next to none in the SW/Code department.

[Marcia]

Mod_rewrite is the webmaster's Swiss Army Knife and that's Linux. I use it on every single site, without exception (unless it's free hosting with my ISP).

The reason I personally would NEVER go with Windows hosting is because even though there may be an equivalent work-around, I don't have the tech ability or the desire to jump through hoops in order to learn to manage Windows hosting, and see no reason to. Not when mod_rewrite is copy and paste for simple things, and for anything else, there's a jdMorgan and steady regular members here to lend a helping hand and answer questions if something arises.

[phranque]

Mod_rewrite is the webmaster's Swiss Army Knife and that's Linux.

mod_rewrite is actually a feature of the apache web server, which is commonly implemented on linux but i've heard can also be made to run on a windows box.
not that i am suggesting this as a solution...

[Marcia]

True! I forget about that, I've never seen Apache used on Windows hosting but it's a good reminder that it can be installed on a Windows box at home, as well as PHP.

No idea if it would have the same functionality as a full home test environment, but it would be interesting to find out.

[bill]

Apache runs just fine on Windows. If you're using IIS then the ISAPI_Rewrite engine will make IIS redirects work the same as Apache.

What to use? It's a decision that depends on the type of site you run and the software you'll use. Both operating systems will work fine. You have to be comfortable working with them.

[Blacksheep]

Thanks for the input!

However my main concern has been lost in the discussion.

Depending on Linux or windows hosting:
What software will be required for a local CPU test bed?

My "code writing" experience is next to nothing. I know DOS well have written about 500 eBay single HTML pages.

Use windows all the time but am by no means well versed in the "code" part of windows.

I bought a Professionally built web template that use CSS and HTML with a small Flash window on the home page. I will be using a hosted cart for checkout.

I bought Adobe web design with Studio 8. So I have Dreamweaver and am just starting to scratch the surface of it's capability.

I am now down to the hosting decision and based on that decision:

What programs will I need to "fully" test the site on a local computer before I host the site.

I don't want the SE spiders crawling a "broken" site.

[bill]

If you want to run a backup server locally then setup IIS or Apache on your workstation locally and work from there. It sounds like you already have an entire working site. Just get things working locally and then find a similar host.

[ytswy]

For a test server I would use an old desktop machine and try to duplicate exactly the versions of the software running on your live server - plus point for Linux, you can do this without having to worry about licensing since you're using a pure open source stack.

I like Linux personally. A lot of that's just that I like OSS, although it does help when looking for help online; the majority of tutorials (although by no means all) will assume a LAMP stack.

[cameraman]

I would choose Linux over Windows for reliability and security. According to netcraft's current survey, 58% of the web runs on Apache and I don't see the web 'down' very often, so I would choose Apache over anything else for both reliability and availability - you'll find more widgets for Apache, orders of magnitude more experts, and likely almost anything you conceive has been done and solved by those experts in some form or fashion. Since you're not a dyed-in-the-wool code jockey with an affinity for NET, you don't have that monkey on your back.

To fully test, you'd need the target OS and server software. If you went with Linux it's extremely highly unlikely that you'd encounter any result differences due to the distribution so that's not particularly important. And, as ytswy said, match the software versions on anything you use.