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A Comparison of Windows vs. LINUX
Many of you who are reading this article are using Windows as
most of the other internet users do. There is a huge difference
between the number of users of LINUX and Windows. Some say
Windows is much better than LINUX because it gives you an easy
handling of the hardware and software. Some say LINUX is much
better because it started as Open Source software and that's why
it is much more flexible than Windows. Then why there is a huge
market difference between these operating systems?
The answer to this question is quite easy. Since 1985, computer
users and programmers became so accustomed to using Windows,
even for the changing capabilities and the appearances of the
graphical interface of the versions, therefore it always stayed
as the product of Microsoft. On the other hand, LINUX has so
many different versions from a variety of companies some of
which are namely Lycoris, Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Knoppix,
Slackware, Lindows. These companies release their own versions
of the operating systems with slight changes, and yet always
with the same kernel. This variety and the fact that none of
these companies are even close to competing with Windows, mostly
causes the difference in the market. Nevertheless, this reality
might drastically change after Novell's purchase of SuSE.
Linux and Windows differ in many aspects. First of all, the
Linux GUI is optional while the Windows GUI is an integral
component of the OS; speed, efficiency and reliability are all
increased by running a server instance of Linux without a GUI,
something that server versions of Windows can not do. The
detached nature of the Linux GUI makes remote control and remote
administration of a Linux computer simpler and more natural than
a Windows computer.
Secondly the command prompts of these operating systems are
quite different. In general, the command interpreters in the
Windows 9x series are very similar to each other and the NT
class versions of Windows (NT, 2000, XP) also have similar
command interpreters. There are, however differences between a
Windows 9x command interpreter and one in an NT
class flavor of
Windows. Linux, like all versions of UNIX, supports multiple
command interpreters, but it usually uses one called BASH
(Bourne Again Shell). Others are the Korn shell, the Bourne
shell, ash and the C shell (pun, no doubt, intended).
The costs are amazingly different. While you have to pay some
hundred dollars for a new version of Windows, you can simply go
and download Linux. As it comes from the nature of Linux, there
are no manuals or simple installers for the free version,
however. You really have to know what you are doing while using
this free package. There are also some easy automated packages
of Linux for low prices, as well.
The security issues with Windows, as most of you already know,
are the biggest cons of Microsoft. Most of the malicious files,
spyware, adware programs deal with Windows. You generally do not
deal with these kinds of unwanted circumstances unless you are
working with Windows. The user-id and password protection for
Windows can also be easily bypassed, whereas Linux offers a
strong protection.
The only area that Windows beats Linux in this "competition" is
the software availability. As it was mentioned above, most of
the software releases are configured for Windows. If you are
using Linux, you have to emulate Windows with a special software
and then you can use your windows based programs. Another option
can be to install Windows as a subsystem to Linux which takes
all administrative abilities of Windows and gives them to Linux.
After mentioning some of the different aspects of these
operating systems, it can be said that all Linux needs to
compete with Windows is some user friendly interface and a
strong company support which can provide the users with
technical information and user manuals.
About the author:
Jay is the web owner of http://www.dsl-in.com DSL, a website that provides
information and resources on DSL, DSL Service, and DSL Service
Providers. You can visit his website at: DSL Service
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