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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.
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