Our choice of platform may be influenced by company policy, personal preference, or simply what we have to hand in terms of hardware, software, and experience. Although the installation instructions differ between each platform, there should be no discernible difference in the end result.
As we will see shortly, there can be a significant discrepancy between the latest available version of a component and the version available for our platform. However, our choice of platform should not be made simply because it has the latest versions available. Unless our server is going to remain completely isolated (highly unlikely) we need to consider how it will fit with the rest of our network—a decision we may not have control over. Other considerations include licensing. Although the components concerned are available under a free (or equivalent) software license, the underlying operating system may have its own license restrictions.