Why do websites run on Linux and clients on Windows?

[skiddin]

Apache, a popular Web server that runs under Linux/Unix powers more than half the Web in the world. However, most client computers run under Windows. Why is this true?

[RedSon]

What does a web server have to do with the operating system of a client's computer?

You are comparing apples and oranges.

[Niheel]

A lot of popular websites run on the Windows platform too. Windows server is a robust server for web services. It has a similar web server application called IIS.

The reason for Apache's popularity maybe tied to the fact that it's very cost efficient to use it as a platform. It's really just free. There is the cost of development for the product, but it's volunteer driven.

Comparable windows products can end up costing thousands of dollars in licensing fees.

Apache is just one of many Open Source web servers out there.

The reason that the clients run under Windows probably has to do with Microsoft's marketing and market dominance. They had a very open developer network which enabled them to be one of the early OS'es to package the internet for the Mass consumer and work market.

But things are changing now, lots of people are browsing the internet through Apple, Android and other Linux variants. I don't think it will stay true for ever.

[ddyer]

Linux is Free. Every virtual server that runs windows pays a licence fee to Micro$soft

[drhowarddrfine]

Linux is based on Unix and Unix, along with its predecessors, has been around a lot longer than Windows, having got its roots in the early computing days. It's networking abilities far exceed anything Windows could do and still does in many ways. Interoperabilit y between systems and processes is trivial to code and the underlying premise that all programs and utilities should work together and be able to receive and pass data makes piping i/o among all this easier.

The internet is based on Unix. Everything from the forward slash in the addresses to you name it.

Windows was originally created for amateurs, the everyman. It was designed to be made simpler for anyone to use, hence why most settings require dialog boxes with checkmarks rather than text files for setting attributes; a GUI is required; and so on which makes it far less flexible to the professional coder.

Utilities did not work with each other or made it difficult to pass data back and forth. Different languages couldn't be used on the same project. And on and on.

While .NET is making this effort to consolidate everything into one framework, in Unix, the OS is the framework and has been from the beginning.