Once you have decided on getting your own dedicated server, you need to choose on the server operating system which can depend on the availability, price and employee expertise.
Unlike the desktop world Microsoft have overwhelming market share. There is a multiplicity of open source operating systems including Linux and FreeBSD. These are often bundled at no extra charge to the customer. Commercial operating systems such as Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or 2008, can be installed on the server if the dedicated server hoster has a Microsoft SPLA agreement.
A commercial version of Linux is Redhat Enterprise or RHEL popular with web hosts and available on a monthly fee basis. With Red Hat there is a subscription which allows for Operating System updates through the Red Hat Network using an application called up2date which is rpm based. Updating is largely automatic This can set to automatic.
Other operating systems are available from the open source community at no charge. These include CentOS, Fedora Core, Debian, and many other Linux distributions or BSD systems FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD. Fedora Core is more cutting edge version of RHEL, the latter being designed for stability.
Support for any of the operating systems above mainly depends on the type of management offered with a particular dedicated server plan. Operating system support may include updates to the core system in order to that the latest patches and security fixes are installed.
Non Microsoft Servers tend to have a web based control panel to operate the server, especially if the intended use of the server is web hosting. Cpanel which includes Web Host Manager allows for the maintenance ofthe core operationg system as well as the common userand management tasks.