Every single notebook or desktop or web server is run by an Operating System - the low-level software which interacts with the computer hardware, including peripheral devices such as a mouse or a printer, along with any apps that are present on the system. Any program input using a command line or a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is processed by sending an Application Program Interface (API) request to the Operating System. On a web server, every single application runs within the parameters set by the OS as well - priority, physical memory, processing time, and so on. This goes for both standard Internet site scripts and server-side software like a media server. In case a virtual server is created on a physical one, there can be two different Operating Systems, called guest OS and host OS, so that you'll be able to set up a different software environment on the same machine.