"Shared hosting
A shared web hosting service or virtual hosting service refers to a web hosting service where many websites reside on one web server connected to the Internet. Each site has it's own section on the server to keep it separate from other sites. This is generally the most economical option for hosting as many people share the overall cost of server maintenance. This is the option which provides the least flexibility as management is completely done by the hosting company. It's also the cheapest option. In this case you don't need any Linux knowledge as you only need to upload your files to your server and that's it.
"Virtual private server hosting
A virtual private server (VPS, also referred to as Virtual Dedicated Server or VDS) is a software solution emulating different servers on the hardware of one server (not completely correct, as there are many different technical solutions to accomplish the same thing). Virtual server hosting provides a lot more flexiblity than plain shared hosting as you are often free to choose which linux distribution you want and you have the freedom to install almost any software available for the operating system of your choice. Not all software runs on as well on virtual servers though and there are many different technologies for achieving this. In most cases the technology used is transparent to the end user"
