An Operating System is the software which communicates with the hardware of a computer system and works as the intermediary between all the applications and the hardware, which includes peripherals such as a printer, a computer mouse or a keyboard. When you run an application, it transfers requests to the OS through an API (Application Program Interface) and the communication is done through a command line or a Graphical User Interface (GUI). A lot like a personal computer, web hosting servers also feature an Operating System that acts as a host for all of the software installed on them, including script apps or server-side software such as a flash server, a VOIP server, etc. A virtual machine can be created on a physical one, so it is possible to install a guest OS on it and have a different system environment in contrast to the physical server host Operating System.