Linux-based hosting operations posted the strongest hostname growth in February, capturing the top three spots and seven of the top 10 in our monthly Hosting Switching Summary. Leaders Go Daddy (up 117K) and 1&1 Internet AG host the majority of their sites on Linux.

Domain registrar eNom, which recently accelerated up its push into shared hosting, was the fastest-growing Windows-based host. Yahoo was February's strongest performer among FreeBSD hosts, with a gain of 13.8K.

1&1 Internet continued to gain traction in the U.S. hosting market, which accounted for 34K of its gain of 52K hostnames for the month. The German hosting company's American unit launched its paid services on Jan. 21.

Texas companies continued to drive growth in the dedicated hosting sector, as The Planet (Dallas), Rackspace (San Antonio> and EV1Servers (Houston) all grew by more than 30K hostnames. The Planet has started 2004 on a roll, with monthly hostname growth of 22.4% in January and 25.7% in February.

Linux hosting accounted for the entire gain at Rackspace, which offers Windows hosting as well but had a net loss 477 Windows hostnames last month.