Linux is an Operating System, that isn't that widely used for desktop machines, but is among the most popular OSs for web servers. It is absolutely free, so you will not need to pay any license costs as part of your web hosting payments. Linux is also thought to be the most reliable Operating System these days and because of the permissions that files have and the file types that can be run, virus files that could infect an average PC shall simply not be executed on a Linux-based hosting server. Additionally, the OS is totally free, so it can be modified without any restrictions, so that it will match the needs of the web hosting company and their clients. This also suggests that unwanted software packages can be removed to make the OS lighter and much faster, that can directly contribute to much better hosting server performance. A lot of Linux machines have the Apache web server set up on them, as this program is also free, quick and secure. It's the most frequently used web server around and is part of the LAMP bundle that many script applications, like Joomla™ and WordPress, require. LAMP is an abbreviation for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.