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People
who are considering
making a change from Windows to Linux or
Linux to Windows commonly
want to know the advantages and disadvantages of each of the operating
systems.
Below is a chart to help illustrate the major advantages and
disadvantages of
each of these Operating systems.
| Topic |
Linux |
Windows |
| Price |
The
majority of Linux distributions are available for free or at a much
lower price
than Microsoft Windows. |
Microsoft
Windows can run between $50.00 - $199.00 US dollars per each license
copy. |
| User Interface |
Although
the majority of Linux distributions have improved dramatically in ease
of use,
Windows is still much easier to use for new computer users. |
Microsoft
has made several advancements and changes that have made it a much
easier to
use Operating System, and although arguably it may not be the easiest
Operating
System, it is still Easier than Linux. |
| Reliability |
The
majority of Linux distributions and versions are notoriously reliable
and can
often run for months and years without needing to be rebooted. |
Although
Microsoft Windows has made great improvements in reliability over the
last few
versions of Windows, it still cannot match the reliability of Linux. |
| Software |
Linux
has a large variety of available software programs, utilities, and
games.
However, Windows has a much larger selection of available software. |
Because
of the large amount of Microsoft Windows users, there is a much larger
selection of available software programs, utilities, and games for
Windows. |
| Software Cost |
Many
of the available software programs, utilities, and games available on
Linux are
freeware and/or open source. Even such complex programs such as Gimp,
OpenOffice, StarOffice, and wine are available for free or at a low
cost. |
Although
Windows does have software programs, utilities, and games for free, the
majority of the programs will cost anywhere between $20.00 - $200.00 or
more US
dollars per copy. |
| Hardware |
Linux
companies and hardware manufacturers have made great advancements in
hardware support
for Linux and today Linux will support most hardware devices. However,
many
companies still do not offer drivers or support for their hardware in
Linux. |
Because
of the amount of Microsoft Windows users and the broader driver
support,
Windows has a much larger support for hardware devices and a good
majority of
hardware manufacturers will support their products in Microsoft Windows. |
| Security |
Linux
is and has always been a very secure Operating System. Although it
still can be
attacked when compared to Windows, it is much more secure. |
Although
Microsoft has made great
improvements over the years with security on their Operating System,
their
Operating System continues to be the most vulnerable to viruses and
other
attacks. |
| Open Source |
Many
of the Linux distributions and many Linux programs are open source and
enable
users to customize or modify the code however they wish. |
Microsoft
Windows is not open source and the majority of Windows programs are not
open
source. |
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What
is
Linux????
Linux (pronounced
LIH-nuhks with a short "i") is a Unix-like
operating system that was designed to provide personal computer users a
free or
very low-cost operating system comparable to traditional and usually
more
expensive Unix systems. Linux has a reputation as a very efficient and
fast-performing system. Linux is sometimes suggested as a possible
publicly-developed alternative to the desktop predominance of Microsoft
Windows. Although Linux is popular among users already familiar with
Unix, it
remains far behind Windows in numbers of users.
A
comparison of Linux and
Windows
Both
Windows and Linux come in many editions. All the
editions of Windows come from Microsoft. The various distributions of
Linux
come from different companies (i.e. SuSE, Ubuntu, Red Hat, Knoppix,
Slackware,
etc).
Windows has
two main lines. The
older editions are referred to as "Win9x" and consist of Windows 95,
98, 98SE and Me. The newer editions are referred to as "NT class" and
consist of Windows NT3, NT4, 2000, XP and Vista. Going back in time,
Windows 3.x
preceded Windows 95 by a few years. And before that, there were earlier
versions of Windows, but they were not popular. Microsoft no longer
supports
Windows NT3, NT4, all the 9x versions and of course anything older.
Support for
Windows 2000 is partial (as of April 2007). Support for Windows XP is
scheduled
to end around June 2010.
The editions of Linux
are referred
to as distributions (often shortened to "distros"). All the Linux
distributions released around the same time frame will use the same
kernel (the
guts of the Operating System). They differ in the add-on software
provided,
Graphical User Interface, install process, price, documentation and
technical
support. Both Linux and Windows come in desktop and server editions.
Linux
is customizable in a way that Windows is not. For one, the user
interface,
while similar in concept, varies in detail from distribution to
distribution.
For example, the task bar may default to being on the top or the
bottom. Also,
there are many special purpose versions of Linux above and beyond the
full
blown distributions described above.
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