Last night I got the debit card for my new bank account, dedicated to my nerdy Web projects. I immediately purchased a hosting plan from GoDaddy, and this morning attempted to install WordPress. I got the error, “”Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL which is required for WordPress.”
Crap!
However, a quick search of the WordPress support forums revealed the truth of the old axiom “When you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.” Given the choice between Windows-based and Linux-based hosting, I’d opted for Windows. The trouble is, Windows-based hosting doesn’t support PHP. So I need to switch operating systems.
However, the hosting setup is apparently still churning on GoDaddy’s servers and I can’t switch until it’s finished. Which is fine, I’m not in a hurry. I’m just eager to get it done.
Interviews with talented writers Jaq Greenspon, Wolfgang Baur, and Zia Munshi are in the can. The first episode of the Writing For Pay podcast is almost finished – I just need to tweak my intro a little more and record a final segment. Then I’ll switch operating systems, set up WordPress, sign up for AdSense, configure the Blixkrieg theme, upload the audio files, pipe them to iTunes, and start promoting the ‘cast.
And I need to create a 300×300 graphic for the show, or pay/persuade someone to do it for me.
Wade Rockett 
Me no like GoDaddy. First, because their advertising offends my feminist sensibilities. Second, because I think their web site is extremely confusing. SO, if you’re looking to change, check out http://www2.icdsoft.com/. I’ve had them for five years and am very happy.
Agreed on both counts. But I’m not looking to change at this point because they do the job and I’m finally mostly used to their horribly confusing web site. I wish they’d knock it off with the commercials, though. Who are they trying to win, teenage boys?
how did you manage to switch host from windows to linux? care to share? i would like to change to a linux-based too.. I would appreciate it if u can give me an email detailing the steps. Thanks a million
Hi James,
My advice would be to phone the help line at your hosting provider to ask them to assist you with it — which is what I finally did after trying it myself. GoDaddy’s interface is extremely confusing and I didn’t want to screw anything up out of ignorance.
If I remember correctly the switch will wipe out your Web site and you’ll need to start over. So make a backup beforehand! If no amount of downtime is acceptable for your site you might consider opening another hosting account with Linux, setting up the new site there, then having the URL point to the new site once it’s ready.
This comment might be entirely outdated, but i had the same problem recently. I set up a server for a restaurant I was working at and set it up as a Windows server. Now, I’m updating the site to run on wordpress. I got the same error message, but all I had to do to change to linux was go to my list of hosts, click the domain name I was changing servers for, and on the right click Upgrade/Downgrade account. I chose the identical service I was using, but Linux instead of Windows, and godaddy did everything for me.
It brought me to my list of hosts, and now it’s “Pending Account Change”, I didn’t get any notifications about additional billing, so I’m assuming it’s just changing servers.
Hope this helps.
Thank you adm :) I guess this is right solution for the problem I have :)
I was not able to asign rights to files and folders on my site (e.g chmod 777).
It was because my site was on windows server. Solutin was to change to linux server.
So I’m trying it right now following your advice.
p.s.
I have backup of my site on my home hard disk so if anything goes wrong I will still be able to get it right :)
Thans!
Everything went smoothly and quickly :) And site is running without a problem.
Thanks adm.
I have done all of this too but my account is still saying ‘pending acocunt change’ after almost 3 days. I reeceived an email this morning from GoDaddy sayin that they’d upgraded/change dmy account. Did anyone else have to wait this long? Is there a problem?
I would call but last time I did the woman struggled to understand my English accent!!!!
I found this page on the godaddy website – it may help anyone else who finds themselves needing to switch the operating system on their hosting account:
http://help.godaddy.com/article/1285?isc=gdbb1207
To Switch Your Hosting Account Operating System
1.Log in to your Account Manager.
2.In the My Products section, select Hosting.
3.Click on the name of the hosting account whose operating system you want to change.
4.In the Account Details section on the right, click Upgrade/Downgrade Hosting Account.
5.In the Select New Plan section, select a new hosting plan. You can also upgrade your bandwidth (additional data transfer) and disk space at this time.
6.Click Continue.
7.If your new hosting plan is an upgrade from your existing plan, proceed through the purchase process. Otherwise, click Save Changes.
This change may make take up to 72 hours depending on the size of the site, the number of databases and other factors that may increase the complexity of the migration. You will receive a email message when we complete your upgrade.
add’t info thru link
hey do i need to have a linux os myself to have a linux host ?
I currently have a windows os ?
i knowthis is a simple question
tx
No, you don’t have to have Linux OS in order to have Linux hosting. I wondered that myself last year before I chose the Linux platform (I run Windows OS on my desktop) because the Windows hosting wouldn’t support php on GoDaddy.
@digitalartempire —
No, you don’t have to have Linux OS in order to have Linux hosting. I wondered that myself last year before I chose the Linux platform (I run Windows OS on my desktop) because the Windows hosting wouldn’t support php on GoDaddy.
@steph tx matey
1 question I uploaded my new theme but now in apreances it not there
its inlustered and worked before ??
where do you access default and classic it just has available themes pls help before i throw my machine out the window tx
Yes, I face lot of problem (Internal server 500 error)with godaddy windows shared hosting plan when using WordPress Installation, Actually Godaddy Windows hosting plan supports Php, and Php is installed IIS 7.0 rather than Apache. So I personally advise you to go for linux based hosting plan or go for hostgator.