If you're younger than about 20 years old, you probably don't remember dial-up Internet. In those days, an internet connection meant a modem attached to your phone line. Anytime you wanted to get online, the modem literally dialed in to a server that connected it to the World Wide Web. You could actually hear the dial tone and the strange screeching sounds that meant your modem was getting connected. Once you were online, you had better have set aside a few hours for browsing, because dial up was slower than cold molasses. Even a pure text page took a while to load, and if you wanted to view any pictures, it could take up to a few minutes for them to load, depending on their size. Modems were rated by their speed, which was measured in kilobytes per second, versus the 10 Mbps which is common for broadband users today.
A lot of technological advancement had to occur to bring us from the dark ages of 56k dial up into the brave new world of up to 100 Mbps broadband. Modems, routers, and switches had to get much faster. Wired and wireless transmission technology had to improve substantially. And web servers, the computers that store websites, had to evolve as well. In the early days most web servers were home PCs reconfigured with server software. As the Web grew, so did web hosting. Now there are hundreds of web hosting companies offering thousands of plans. They run the gamut from basic free plans to high end, high dollar services used by the likes of Amazon and eBay. Many webmasters choose a Linux virtual dedicated server plan, since these plans are so inexpensive and feature rich.
Every web server needs an operating system, and Linux is the most popular choice by a long shot. There are several reasons for this, but most software experts agree that the open source development of Linux is what makes it so appealing to server administrators. Open development allows a worldwide community of software developers to continuously improve the operating system. This guarantees the hosting provider and customer that the OS on their web servers will run smoothly, offer fixes for bugs and glitches promptly, and adapt quickly to changing demands. These are the exact qualities that are necessary for any mission critical Internet software, or hardware for that matter. And when the rock solid Linux OS is combined with a virtual dedicated server, you get a combination of features and price that is tough to beat.
Virtual dedicated server (VDS) also referred to as virtual private server (VPS) is a particular way of allocating the resources of a web server. To create a VDS, the resources of a single physical web server are partitioned to create a bunch of virtual servers. This process is called virtualization, and the resulting virtual machines behave like independent dedicated web servers. This allows many webmasters to share the resources of one server, while all enjoying the privacy and control that comes with a dedicated server. Because the expenses of the physical server are split between many users, the cost of these monthly plans is very low. The low prices, combined with the control and flexibility that these plans offer, make them the most popular web hosting solutions on the market today.
If you are looking for an easy to use, inexpensive web hosting plan that still offers all the features you could possibly want, you can't do much better than a Linux virtual dedicated server. These plans host millions of websites of all shapes and sizes, and they are preferred by savvy webmasters the world over. Once you experience the convenience and savings of these plans, you'll never go back!