On 10/31/2013 6:53 PM, Craig L. wrote:
Hello all, I have a good friend that is in a sticky situation and has turned to me for help. I'm not 100% sure of how to advise him so I figured I would pose our question here. He lives in Texas, in the USA. He is starting his own business, and a bit sooner than he planned. He has a domain registered to him. He needs to be able to set up email service asap, with an eye towards eventually setting up a web site for the operation. I know GoDaddy offers these types of services, but I'm not a big fan of GoDaddy. Since I will probably be the system administrator for a while, I would prefer a hosting service that offers a Linux OS, preferably Debian, and PostgreSQL or MySQL, again preferably PostgreSQL. May I trouble you good people for suggestions that meet these needs? We would like to have at least one working email address by close of business tomorrow (Friday, 1 November), or Monday at the latest. Thanks, Craig Sent - Gtek Web Mail
First of all, most hosting is done on shared servers. With shared servers, you will have only user privileges, and not much of that. Email will be set up via a control panel; webserver, database and languages will already be set up. The system itself will be maintained and updated. You will share the server resources with up to 150 or so other web sites (depending on the hosting company . All you need to do is upload the website pages.
You will have very limited access outside of your home directory; some hosting companies don't even provide SSH access because for the vast majority of web sites, it's not needed.
So from the operator POV (you will not be a "sysop" - you'll be a "webmaster"), there's not really much difference between Linux hosting and other types. I do, however, prefer Linux hosting, but for other reasons.
Now if you go with an unmanaged dedicated server ($$$) or Virtual Private Server ($$), you do have total control - but you also have total responsibility (you can get managed servers - but at more cost).
For shared hosting you might try HostGator - I know several people who are happy with them. (BTW - I share your feelings about GoDaddy web hosting - I have my domains there - but would never host a site there).
Jerry