Linux is an Operating System, which is not that frequently used for desktop machines, but is one of the most popular OSs for web servers. It is absolutely free, so you will not have to pay any license costs as part of your website hosting payments. Linux is furthermore considered to be the most risk-free OS these days and thanks to the permissions which files have and also the file types that can be run, virus files which could infect a regular personal computer will simply not be executed on a Linux-based server. Moreover, the Operating System is 100 % free, so it can easily be modified without any limitations, as a way to satisfy the requirements of the web hosting company and their customers. This also means that needless software packages can easily be removed to make the OS lighter and much faster, which could directly contribute to significantly better hosting server performance. Many Linux machines have the Apache web server set up on them, as this software is also free, quick and stable. It is the most widely used web server available and is an element of the LAMP bundle that lots of script apps, including WordPress and Joomla™, need. LAMP is an abbreviation for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.