word press site and hosting company

How the word press site and hosting company are related.

To install and run Wordpress there are a variety of requirements (php, mysql, etc). The hosting company helps you meet these requirements. Some hosts, like WPEngine, specialize in Wordpress hosting and offer features that make it easier to install/manage.

what is cpanel. who offers cpanel.

Most hosts will offer Cpanel. It's a control panel application that makes it easier to manage your hosting account. It provides a gui to do things like setup your email accounts, manage databases, manage user permissions, etc.

what are the steps to launch a personal site for free/low cost.

For free, follow Jason's advice with wordpress.com

Cheap, take a look at Bluehost or Green Geeks.

any good links and step by step instructions with screeshots on this?

I would start here if you go the free route.

The cheap route would be the same, except you'd set the site up somewhere other than wordpress.com

(assuming you have PHP and MySQL available).

i am a java developr so is there is java option? or i can select PHP as well?

Do you mean i have to download PHP and MySql.

I already have MySql dowloaded on my laptop. I do not know anything about PHP and what software needs to be downloaded for that?

WordPress runs on PHP and MySQL.  You can make it run on some other database with enough effort.  It will not run on Java.  Even a cursory reading of the Codex will tell you this, so please do your part and read the documentation.

For your laptop, I would not download each component separately.  You need a web server, MySQL, and PHP.  If you have no experience setting these up, then download something like WAMP or XAMPP that will install a complete web server, PHP and MySQL instance and work almost instantly.

i have both webserver apache tomcat and app server jboss on my laptop. I am not familiar with PHP set up. I will try WAMP or XAMPP. I wonder what is difference between these two. what kind of webserver bundled here? If two instance of MySql (one installed by me earlier one fro WAMP/XAMPP) hopefully wont create conflicts in future?

WAMP/XAMPP shouldn't cause problems with existing installs.

Most hosts will offer Cpanel. It's a control panel application that makes it easier to manage your hosting account. It provides a gui to do things like setup your email accounts, manage databases, manage user permissions, etc.

cpanel is paid service? are there any free services on this? please advise

cpanel is paid service? are there any free services on this? please advise

Cpanel will come installed on your host by default. You won't have to pay extra for it, as the cost will be part of your 'monthly hosting' bill.

The only way you would need to pay for cpanel is if you were setting up your own personal host/server.

For free, follow Jason's advice with wordpress.com

so word press also comes with cpanel by default right. Any good video tutorials on how to do all these things quickly?

how to have cpanel or something similar to that with wordpress