I'm about to host one of my sites, but whenever i go to a host website i always see windows and linux hosting, please can anyone tell me the difference between the two andwhat they both entail.

It's a features thing. What I would do rather is ask those here what they have and list advantages/disadvantages if they have used the other. Also, you could always also contact the web host, tell them what you want to accomplish with your sties (db, etc) and let them recommend a server for you.

I 'think' the key differentiator is that Linux hosting would traditionally support LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-pHp) based technologies while Windows hosting would support AST.NET / MS SQL based technologies.

If your website/web application runs on LAMP then you should go for Linux hosting while if it runs on ASP/MSSQL, then you should go for Windows hosting but then of course if yours is just straight up html pages with no backend DB or dynamic functionalities, then either platform should be suitable. Regards

What if i use PHP and MYSQL on my site, which is recommended.
Can i go for Linux Hosting if my Operating system is windows?

If you are using PHP/MYSQL, then its better to host with a Linux server. PHP runs best on LINUX without any stupid configurations. The last site (with PHP/MYSQL) I hosted on a windows server was no small task at all. The very basic php codes could not run properly. I had to use special classes that the host wrote in order to perform the php functions.

afam4eva, sure.

I believe there is XAMP and WAMP which are software programs that enable you to develop and run PHP/MySQL based app on your local machine b4 you upload to your hosting server. I stand corrected though and others are free to chime in.

Please where can i download XAMP or WAMP from.

yawatide you are absolutely correct i used WAMP as my local server php can work well windows if you make use WAMP-window- Apache Mysql and php

afam4eva just do a search on google and you will get a lot site where you can download XAMP OR WAMP