Most servers run a version of Linux or Windows and as a rule of thumb, Windows servers will need more resources than Linux servers. Linux’s configurability gives it an advantage over Windows for dedicated application hosting, as functions and applications that are not required can be removed by an administrator.

Do servers have operating systems?

The server operating system is also called the network operating system, which is the system software that the server can run. Almost all servers can support various operating systems.

Which operating system runs on a server?

Popular server operating systems include Windows Server, Mac OS X Server, and variants of Linux such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.