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Wins vs Linux

Why use Linux as your OS

 

Graphical User Interface :

• The Linux GUI makes remote control and remote administration of a Linux computer simpler and more natural than a Windows computer.
• Windows XP has a themes feature that offers some customization of the look and feel of the GUI.

Command Interpreter :

• Text Mode Interface is known as a command interpreter. In 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).
• Windows users sometimes call it a DOS prompt. Each version of Windows has a single command interpreter, but the different flavors of Windows have different interpreters.

Cost :

• Linux is very cheap compared to Windows. If you have purchased Linux or get free cost, you can run it on any number of computers for no additional charge.
• Windows is expensive. Microsoft allows a single copy of Windows to be used on only one computer. Starting with Windows XP, they use software to enforce this rule (Windows Product Activation at first, later Genuine Windows).

Scripting :

• On Linux/Unix the scripts are the main interface to the system. Its scripting is open sourse based. Anyone can scripting Linux OS.
• On the other hand, Windows provides Windows Management Interface ( called Windows PowerShell ) which makes many rules for scripting.

Running Linux Without Installing It :

• One thing that Linux can do that Windows can not, is run from a CD. To run Windows, it has to first be installed to your hard disk. Normally Linux also runs from a hard disk, but there are quite a few versions of Linux that run completely from a CD without having to be installed to a hard disk. The term for this is a "Live" CD.
• You can't get this option in Windows.

Imagine carrying your Desktop with you wherever you go... :

• November 23, 2008: ZAReason sells a bootable copy of Ubuntu on a 4GB USB flash drive as if you had a hard drive in your pocket.
• You can't get this option in Windows.

Application Software :

• It is true, more application software available for Windows thats you need.
• But there may be sufficient Linux software for your needs.

Linux Crossing the OS Boundary :

A program written for Windows will not run under Linux.

For example, Microsoft makes a version of Office for Windows and another version for the Mac. They are two different products, each capable of only running on the operating system it was designed for. There is no version of Microsoft Office for Linux.

On the other hand, some programs, such as Firefox, are available for multiple operating systems. Firefox runs on Linux, Windows, Macs and more. Open Office competes with Microsoft Office and comes in versions for Windows (all the way from Windows 98 up to Vista), GNU/Linux ("Linux"), Sun Solaris, Mac OS X (under X11), and FreeBSD.

The process of making a new version of a program that will run on a different operating system is called "porting". But there are other ways to get a program to run on an operating system other than the one it was designed for.

Security :

• Windows users are burdened with the need for anti-virus and anti-spyware software.
• Linux users are not.

Why is this?

• Linux [has] ... the notion of an administrative (root) user that maintains and operates the system, and desktop users who only run the software on the system, is completely ingrained in most Linux distributions. Now it’s true that many Linux users ignore these features and run all their software from a root-level account anyway, but that’s a choice that they’ve made. The system defaults to protecting the operating system components from its user’s actions (intentional or otherwise). That feature alone must account in large degree for the dearth of viruses and other malicious vermin on Linux and UNIX platforms.
• Windows started life as a single user system, with that single user being all-powerful. Although that’s no longer the case, the general attitude can still be found in many Windows-based software products – many of which just can’t be installed and/or run properly without desktop administrator privileges. This is all changing for the better, but it took Microsoft far too long to adopt this default-secure configuration practice.

Hard Disk Partitions :

• Windows must be installed to and boot from a primary partition. There are a maximum of four primary partitions on a single hard disk.
• Linux is better in this regard as it can be installed to and boot from either a primary partition or a logical partition. Logical partitions reside inside a special type of primary partition called an extended partition. There is no practical limit to the number of logical partitions that can exist on a single hard disk. Thus you can easily experiment with a dozen different Linux distributions by installing each one in a different logical partition.
• Windows must boot from the first hard disk.
• Here  Linux is better, it can boot from any hard disk in the computer.

Extra :

Both Windows and Linux have desktop shortcuts to applications.In aditional Ubuntu, add a shortcut to the panel at the top of the screen with: right-click an empty area of the panel, choose Add to Panel, select the program you want to add, click the Add button.

Shutting Down :

• Linux can schedule programs to run automatically at shutdown time.
• Windows XP is not able to schedule programs to run at shutdown time.

 

• Windows allows programs to store user information (files and settings) anywhere. This makes it impossibly hard to backup user data files and settings and to switch to a new computer.
• In contrast, Linux stores all user data in the home directory making it much easier to migrate from an old computer to a new one. If home directories are segregated in their own partition, you can even upgrade from one version of Linux to another without having to migrate user data and settings.