Windows v/s Linux
Basic points of comparison
Topic Linux
Price The majority of Linux variants are
available for free or at a much lower
price than Microsoft Windows.
Ease Although the majority Linux variants
have improved dramatically in ease of
use, Windows is still much easier to
use for new computer users.
Reliability The majority of Linux variants and
versions are notoriously reliable and
can often run for months and years
without needing to be rebooted.
Software Linux has a large variety of
available software programs, utilities,
and games. However, Windows has a
much larger selection of available
software.
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, etc
are available for free or at a low cost.
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.
Windows
Microsoft Windows can run between
$50.00 - $150.00 US dollars per each
license copy.
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.
Although Microsoft Windows has made
great improvements in reliability over the
last few versions of Windows, it still
cannot match the reliability of Linux.
Because of the large amount of Microsoft
Windows users, there is a much larger
selection of available software programs,
utilities, and games for Windows.
Although Windows does
have software programs, utilities, and
games for free, the majority of the
programs will cost anywhere between
$20.00 - $200.00+ US dollars per copy.
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 much more secure.
Open Source Many of the Linux variants and many
Linux programs are open source and
enable users to customize or modify
the code however they wish to.
Support Although it may be more difficult to
find users familiar with all Linux
variants, there are vast amounts of
available online documentation and
help, available books, and support
available for Linux.
1] Worldwide usage
Windows
Estimated Desktop Usage 92.00%
Share
Pre-installation Pre-installed by default on almost
all new desktop PCs
Server revenuemarket share 7.3%
Top 500 Supercomputer 1.0% (absolute 5)
operating system family
share
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.
Microsoft Windows is not open source and
the majority of Windows programs are not
open source.
Microsoft Windows includes its own help
section, has vast amount of available online
documentation and help, as well as books
on each of the versions of Windows.
Linux
1.02%
Pre-installed by default on very few
new desktop PCs. However, Ubuntu is now
available on all System76 computers,
some Dell Computers, and SUSE Linux
Enterprise Desktop on some
Lenovo ThinkPads. Recently many more
Linux-based low-end consumer laptops
have been introduced.
33.8%
88.6% (absolute 443), the 14 fastest
supercomputers run Linux
2] User interface

Windows Linux
Graphical user The Windows Shell. The window manager
interface is the Desktop Window Manager on
Windows Vista, and a Stacking window
manager built on top of GDI(Graphics
Device Interface) in older versions. The
desktop environment may be modified by a
variety of third party products such
as WindowBlinds; or completely replaced, The KDE Plasma Desktop
for example by Blackbox for Windows, A number of desktop environments are
or LiteStep. With Windows Server 2008 and available, of which GNOME and KDE are
later, there is also the option of running the most widely used. By default, they use
"Server Core" which replaces the standard as their window
window manager with the command managers Metacity and KWinrespectively,
prompt. The graphics drivers, subsystem, though these can be replaced by other
and core widgets are included with all window managers such as Compiz Fusion.
installations, including those used as Other desktop environments and window
servers. managers
includeXfce, LXDE, Enlightenment, Xmona
d, Openbox, Fluxbox, etc. The X Window
system runs in user-space and is optional.
Multiple X Window system instances can
run at once, and it is a fully networked
protocol..
Command-line
interface

A sample Windows PowerShell session A sample Bash (Bourne-again shell.)

session
The Command Prompt exists to provide Linux is strongly integrated with the system
direct communication between the user and console. The command line can be used to
the operating system. A .NET-based recover the system if the graphics subsystem
command line environment called Windows fails. A large number of Unix shells exist;
 PowerShell has been developed. It varies
from Unix/Linux shells in that, rather than
using byte streams, the PowerShell pipeline
is an object pipeline; that is, the data passed
between cmdlets are fully typedobjects.
When data is piped as objects, the elements
they encapsulate retain their structure and
types across cmdlets, without the need for
any serialization or explicit parsing of the
stream.
with the majority being "Bourne shell
compatible" shells, of which the most
widely used is GNU Bash. Alternatives
include the feature-full Z shell; as well as
shells based on the syntax of other
programming languages, such as the C shell,
and Perl Shell. Many applications can be
scripted through the system console, there
are a lot of small and specialized
utilities meant to work together and to
integrate with other programs. This is called
the toolbox principle.

3] Accessibility and usability

Windows Linux
User Focus Mostly consistent. Inconsistencies The quality of graphical design varies between
appear primarily through backports desktop environments and distributions. The
—software ported from newer two biggest desktop environments
operating systems to older ones. For (GNOME and KDE) have clearly defined
example, software ported from interface guidelines, which tend to be followed
Vista to XP must follow the Vista consistently and clearly. These provide
guidelines, those of the newer consistency and a high grade of
system (IE7 and Windows Media customizability in order to adapt to the needs
Player 11 are examples of this). of the user. Distributions such
However, Microsoft continually as Ubuntu, SuSE, Fedora or Mandriva take
pushes for consistency between this one step further, combining well-
releases with guidelines for functioning usability and safety. However,
interface design. The latest are inconsistencies may appear, since GNOME-
Windows Vista User Experience based programs, following different
guidelines. Their focus is on guidelines, look notably different
consistency and usability, but with from KDE programs. There are other
increased concern for safety in new environments/window managers, usually
versions. Third-party applications targeting professionals or minimalist users,
may or may not follow these featuring some very powerful programs with
guidelines, may have their own rudimentary, minimalist graphical front-ends,
guidelines, or may not follow any focusing much more on performance, small
rules for interface design. size and safety. WindowMaker and
the Fluxbox/Openbox/Blackbox environments
are such examples. Some other environments
 fit between the two models, giving both
power, eye candy and simplicity
(Enlightenment/E17, Xfce).
Consistency between User interaction with software is Consistency ranges from high to poor between
versions usually consistent between versions, distributions, versions, window
releases, and editions. managers/desktop environments, and
programs. Software is generally highly user-
customizable, and the user may keep the
customizations between versions.
Consistency between All Microsoft software follows the Highly consistent within KDE and GNOME.
applications same guidelines for GUI, although However the vast amount of additional
not all software developed for software that comes with a distribution is
Windows by third parties follows sourced from elsewhere; it may not follow the
these GUI guidelines. As stated same GUI guidelines or it may cause
above, backports tend to follow the inconsistencies (e.g. different look and feel
guidelines from the newer operating between programs built with different widget
system. toolkits).
Customization By default, Windows only offers Linux offers dozens of different user interfaces
customization of size and color of to choose from through numerous desktop
the graphical elements, and it is environments and window managers. Different
typically not possible to change environment offers various levels of
how the interface reacts to user customizability, ranging from the basic colors
input. and size to extreme customizability of user
A few third-party programs allow input, actions, and display.
some more extensive customization, It is possible to switch from one to another
like WindowBlinds or LiteStep, but interface at any time, though graphic
radical changes are usually out of applications will generally need to be closed.
reach. It is not possible to customize
the applications that do not use the
default look-and-feel beyond the
options the specific application
offers.
4] Performance

Windows Linux
Process Scheduling NT-based versions of Windows use a CPU Linux kernel 2.6 once used a
scheduler based on a multilevel feedback scheduling algorithm favoring
queue, with 32 priority levels defined. The interactive processes. Here
kernel may change the priority level of a "interactive" is defined as a
thread depending on its I/O and CPU usage process that has short bursts of
and whether it is interactive (i.e. accepts and CPU usage rather than long ones.
responds to input from humans), raising the It is said that a process without
priority of interactive and I/O bounded root privilege can take advantage
processes and lowering that of CPU bound of this to monopolize the CPU,
processes, to increase the responsiveness of when the CPU time accounting
interactive applications. precision is low. However,
The scheduler was modified in Windows Completely, now the standard
Vista to use the cycle counter register of scheduler, addresses this
modern processors to keep track of exactly problem.
how many CPU cycles a thread has
executed, rather than just using an interval-
timer interrupt routine.
Memory Management/ Windows NT family (including 2000, XP, Most hard drive installations of
Disk Paging Vista, Win7) most commonly employs a Linux utilize a "swap partition",
dynamically allocated pagefile for memory where the disk space allocated
management. A pagefile is allocated on for paging is separate from
disk, for less frequently accessed objects in general data, and is used strictly
memory, leaving more RAM available to for paging operations. This
actively used objects. This scheme suffers reduces slowdown due to disk
from slow-downs due to disk fragmentation fragmentation from general use.
(if a variable size paging file is specified), As with Windows, for best
which hampers the speed at which the performance the swap partition
objects can be brought back into memory should be placed on a hard drive
when they are needed. Windows XP and separate from the primary one.
later can defragment the pagefile, and on Linux also allows to adjust
NTFS filesystems, intelligently allocate "swappiness" e.g. the amount of
blocks to avoid this problem. Windows can data it needs to buffer (this is not
be configured to place the pagefile on a equivalent to adjusting the
separate disk or partition. However, this is virtual memory size). Windows
not default behavior, because if the pagefile does not support such features.
is on a separate partition, then Windows
cannot create a memory dump in the event
of a Stop Error. On the NT family, executed
programs become part of the paging system
(to improve performance). Programs cannot
normally access each others address space.
It is possible to configure the OS to have no
 additional paging file.
The Windows 3.1/95/98/ME family does
not have true virtual memory and uses a
simpler swapping scheme easily leading to
needless swaps and disc fragmentation.
Programs on this family can access each
other's address space.

5] Security

Windows Linux
Malware According to Kaspersky Lab, more than As of 2006, more than 800 pieces
11,000 malware programs for Windows of Linux malwarehave been
were discovered just in the second half of discovered. Some malware has
2005. However, it is common for anti- propagated through the
malware software to have more than 1,000 Internet. However, in practice,
signatures against which potentially reports of bonafide malware
malicious components can be presence on Linux-based systems
compared. Botnets – networks of infected are extremely rare .Nonetheless,
computers controlled by malicious anti-malware tools such
persons – with more than one million as ClamAV and Panda Security's
computers have been witnessed Once DesktopSecure for Linux do exist.
malicious software is present on a These programs are mainly
Windows-based system, it can sometimes intended to filter Windows
be incredibly difficult to locate and malware from emails and network
remove. As such, users are advised to traffic traveling through Linux-
install and run anti-malware programs. based servers. The extreme rarity
of this type of occurrence is such
that it is not usually necessary to
use anti-malware programs
Open vs. Closed Claims its platform is more secure Claims its platform is more secure
because of a comprehensive approach to because all of its code is reviewed
security using the Security Development by so many people that bugs are
Lifecycle. detected (referred to as Linus's
However, because Windows is closed- law).
source, only Microsoft-employed Anyone with programming
programmers (or licensed third-parties) experience is free to fix bugs and
can fix bugs. Because the software is submit them for inclusion in future
closed-source, consumers have to trust releases and updates.
that Microsoft is not doing anything
 against them.
Response speed Claims closed source offers a faster and Bugs can be fixed and rolled out
more effective response to security within a day of being reported
issues, though critical bug fixes are only (often within hours), though
released once a month after extensive usually it takes a few weeks before
programming and testing and certain bugs the patch is available on all
have been known to go unpatched for distributions.
months or even years.
User Accounts In Windows Vista, all logged-in sessions Users typically run as limited
(even for those of "administrator" users) accounts, having created both
run with standard user permissions, administrator (commonly called
preventing malicious programs (and "superuser" and named "root",
inexperienced users) from gaining total has UID 0) and at least one user
control of the system. Processes that account during install, preventing
require administrator privileges can be run malicious programs from gaining
using the User Account total control of the system. Note
Controlframework. For standard users, that the user "root" is not the same
this presents a credentials dialogue thing as the root level of the
(example) that requires the password of a filesystem, indicated by "/" alone.
member of the administrators group (who In most Linux distributions, there
are listed). For users who are already are commands (su, sudo) that will
logged in an administrator, only temporarily grant
confirmation is necessary. The first user root/administrator privileges to
account created during the setup process is processes that need it. In practice,
automatically a member of the the sudo command is generally far
administrators group. The majority of less of an annoyance, leading to its
users did not change to an account type use over su in distributions like
with fewer rights, meaning that, in Ubuntu, in spite of the additional
Windows versions prior to the security risk. In addition, a user
introduction of UAC, malicious programs can log into the PC as the "root" or
would have full control over the system. temporarily become root with su
(normal console logout returns the
user to normal permissions). No
elevated permissions are needed
for anything when logged in as
root. In practice, this can be very
dangerous, as a simple typo error
at the command line can wipe a
hard drive clean or clear the
contents of system RAM. Unlike
Vista's UAC, a privileged process
has complete, unrestricted access
to the system