Many web hosting companies advertise different prices for Windows and (L)Unix web hosting. What is the difference between the two?

Thanks

LAMP will give you the most bang for your buck... (Linux Apache MySQL PHP)

It's far more reliable, doesn't crash nearly as much, does not have all the security issues as Windows/IIS. Uses far less resources and you can virtual server far more sites on the same hardware as opposed to running Windows/IIS.

As for server side languages... I am biased to PHP. There's tons of premade scripts out there to get you started... things like WordPress for blogs to phpBB for message board.

Linux is free... Windows is not.

The difference is what server side language and database will you be able to use.

Before you look for hosting you need to know what databases(Acces, SQL Server or MySQL) will you use.

You also need to know what server side languages to use: ASP, PHP or JSP.

Windows and UNIX are in fact two different systems and of course we are referring to computer systems. A web host uses computers, (we shall refer to them as servers, just computers, but sometimes larger) to host websites, and all computers need a operating system, so Windows and UNIX are the operating system. The Windows used is normally Windows NT or 2000 and of course as you know Microsoft charges for it's software, while UNIX is an open source operating system, this means that the original creators of the system have given up the rights and anyone can use it, change, improve or do anything they want with, free of charge.