Why Do Most Servers Run Linux? Historical and Technical Reasons Explained

Answer 1 (Zhihu user “熊大你又骗俺”)

Early Windows Server + IIS + ASP + Access setups were popular for small, low‑traffic sites; examples include the Chinese forum “动网论坛” and the “动网新闻” system that packaged ASP code into DLLs (动易). Hosting providers often bundled these components, while PHP‑based Linux hosts bundled Zend, creating a split market.

Because virtual hosts offered limited configuration, security lapses such as exposed .mdb files with plain‑text passwords were common, illustrating the operational drawbacks of Windows hosting at the time.

Answer 2 (Zhihu user “Sental Cristar”)

The decline of Windows in the server market is largely attributed to IIS shortcomings: although IIS initially offered FTP and easy ASP deployment, its closed ecosystem, poor support for languages like PHP and Ruby, heavy reliance on ASP.NET, and complex configuration made it hard to optimize.

Performance‑wise, lightweight servers such as Apache, Nginx, and Lighttpd—built on poll/epoll—delivered several times higher concurrency, further pushing web‑server workloads toward Linux.

Answer 3 (Zhihu user “Kero”)

A personal anecdote describes attempting to run a Windows server for a game (帕鲁) but encountering missing runtimes and memory constraints, leading to a switch to Ubuntu where a simple apt install steamcmd and server.sh sufficed, underscoring Linux’s suitability for lightweight scenarios.

Answer 4 (Zhihu user “hyu jj”)

Cost is a decisive factor: Windows servers are licensed per CPU core, often costing around 100,000 CNY for a legitimate server, whereas Linux is free, making it financially attractive for large‑scale deployments.

Answer 5 (Zhihu user “Sven”)

Key advantages of Linux include a massive ecosystem, ultra‑light distributions like Alpine that enable minimal container images, and native container support; Windows and macOS cannot match Linux’s low‑level container capabilities, so modern infrastructure favors Linux.

Answer 6 (Zhihu user “水雷”) Historically, Microsoft opposed open source; Bill Gates publicly decried piracy and promoted paid software, which delayed Linux’s rise. Over time, the open‑source model proved dominant, and Microsoft eventually embraced open source. Answer 7 (Zhihu user “没有人”) The core reason Linux dominates today is network effect: a mature, free, Unix‑compatible ecosystem provides abundant tools, training pathways, and job opportunities, while Windows server lagged in adoption, performance, and cost, cementing Linux’s position as the default server OS.