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When you have decided on a managed dedicated server, you need to decide on the server operating system. Quite often this can depend on the availability, cost and staff 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.

This can set to automatic. Other operating systems are available from the open source community at no cost. These include CentOS, Fedora Core, Debian, and many other Linux distributions or BSD systems NetBSD, OpenBSD and the highly stable and popular FreeBSD.

Management for any of the operating systems above mainly depends on the type of management offered with a particular dedicated server package. Operating system support may include upgrades to the core system in order to that the latest patches and security fixes are installed.

Quite often non Microsoft Servers have a control panel installed to manage the server, especially if the intended use of the server is web hosting. Cpanel which is combined with WHM allows for the maintenance of the core operationg system as well as the routine web creation tasks.