Linux vs.

Windows
The experiment
Warren Fulcher

From the Beginning: Linux, a well know operating system to IT Specialists. Known for its robustness, stability, and ability be adapted for almost any situation with relative ease if the operator knows the system well enough. Also unlike its biggest rival Windows, it is cheap and quick to implement. But what good does this do for a normal user? The little guy who only knows of Windows and Mac. Usually when the word Linux is mentioned, most people dont know what it is and those who have heard of it see it as a difficult to use and hard to learn operating system. Most think it is just an operating system reserved for only those advanced users or hackers. This could not be farther from the truth. In fact if you look at Windows 7 and most of the more recent Linux distributions you will notice that Windows 7 shares a lot of the same look and feel that its Linux counterpart has. And unlike most Windows software, you can actually find and obtain most Linux software for free. There are also many different flavors of Linux. In the Windows world you are restricted to several different operating systems but only one company produces it and the latest one is the only one of its kind. And in some cases the software that is loaded on the newest one will not work on the older versions or vice versa. In the Linux world this is not so. There are many different flavors, and they are always evolving. You are not restricted to just one version and you are not worrying if the program you just will work on a different version of Linux if you decide you do not like the current one you have. Queue the Transition:

In this experiment I will have one person install two different operating systems, two different times. I will have them do it twice because of two different ways of setting up. The first time will just be a basic setup, no special install process. And a second time to do a more advanced set up for the operating systems. Also they will do program installation and then try to set up a share between another system of the same operating system and then set up a share between the two different operating system. As they do this they will fill out a sheet listing any thoughts and comments, and comparisons they have about the two systems. The two operating systems in question are, Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11. What I hope to achieve by this experiment is to hopefully prove that the Linux side of computing is not scary and show that anyone can use Linux. I aim to get rid of the phobias behind its use and show at least one person that even though it is a Windows world, there is an more stable alternative that wont cost you an arm and leg like most Mac products. The Experiment: At one time one of the most difficult and expensive process of using a computer was installing the operating system. You either had to know what you were doing since the interface was clunky and difficult to follow, or pay someone to do it for you which could be costly. With the evolution of operating systems over time the designers learned they needed to make the installation process simpler. Now it uses a graphical user interface (GUI) and its pretty straight forward and has advanced options if you need them. For this part of the experiment I had one of my friends install both Linux Ubuntu and Windows 7 She knows how to use Windows when it is actually running but does not know how to re-install it and get it set up. First I set up 4 virtual machines. Each with the same specs, single

core processor, 2 Gigabytes of ram with a 30 Gigabyte hard drive. After I finished the initial set up of the virtual machine and loaded the international organization for standardization (ISO) image into the virtual CD drive I started the experiment. First I had her start with the operating system she is familiar with Windows. This part of the experiment took roughly 45 minutes and no partitions were configured. After a bit of guidance from me she said " This is pretty easy to do, it is straight forward and asks very little to get something as complex as an operating system configured to my liking". To be honest I was not surprised by this reaction. Windows tends to cater to the novice user but also has tools for more advanced configuration such as partitions, but this will be covered later. Next I got the Linux virtual machine prepared and let her take the wheel. Before I let her install though, I told her there are two main ways to install this version of Linux and gave her a bit of information on each method. She chose to go with the easier to use Live CD option over the other install method that was similar to the Windows installer. I say easier because it allows you to boot the operating system without actually installing it and then telling it to install via an icon on the desktop and does not bombard you with as many options as you would have had if you had went with the other method. After a bit of getting used she was actually able to install this operating system with very little help from me. It was straight forward and only asked you for information when it needed it. Albeit it pretty much only asks you the same questions as windows, it tended to explain what it wanted fully and why it wanted it. In my friends words; "This install was so easy. I do not understand why more people don't use this operating system. It is so intuitive, almost like it was made for me". Which according to Justin Pot she is right. He states On Windows, making sure I have all of the drivers, codecs and other things means going through the process above for all software mentioned individually. On Ubuntu, all I need to do is

install a single package: Ubuntu Restricted Extras.(www.makeuseof.com) And in a sense it was made for her. It is developed by people that always are asking the end user questions on how to make it better and easier to use. After she said that I told her she is not out of the woods yet. There is still setting up partitions, program installation and setting up sharing. All in all, this install only took 15 minutes. Now after these two installs I decided to make her do the advanced install. Again I started her out with Windows. This time she was to set up 2 partitions. One is 20 Gigabyte for the operating system and 10 Gigabyte for just programs and documents. I explained the benefits of having partitions as well. She initially had some issues and asked some questions but was able to figure it out for the most part. Her words were "This is a little harder than the easy set up but not too difficult. I don't see why people shy away from creating partitions especially with the benefits it has over not isolating the operating system from the rest of the personal data that most people store on their computers. It is not that much harder to do". For the most part I agree with her. Windows partition set up is very easy to use and easy to customize how you want things set up. This part of the experiment took 1 hour to complete. Now for Linux, personally when it comes to partition set up this one will be the more difficult to set up because a novice does not know what all the different partitions Linux needs to run does. Linux requires at least 3 partitions (root, swap, and home) to run and that does not include creating a partition for data storage and other things. The easy setup already does this for you. So after the basic explanation of everything I had her do the advanced install with a 10Gb root, 3 Gigabyte swap 4Gigabyte home, and 13Gigabyte data partition. She was doing well until it actually came time to set up the partitions. I had her start the install and once past the initial easy set up steps she started having issues. The partition setup in Linux is a tad more confusing.

Because you have to set up those 3 main partitions and you have to tell them what type of format to use. Once I got her past that the install went pretty smoothly. Over all this process took 45 minutes. Not because Linux actually required that long to install but because I had to explain things along the way. She said "The easy install made it seem like this operating system would be easy to install when doing some more advanced stuff, it is actually quite the opposite. For a beginner I can see why they would shy away from Linux. It is kind of deceiving. Going from the easy install to the hard install it is several times harder to get configured". I have to agree with her on this. It is a bit intimidating since it requires a bit more thinking to accomplish the more advanced setup of Linux. The Ubuntu developers state that there are several differences between Windows and Linux which makes it harder to understand since most people are used to Windows (www.Ubuntu.com). It pays off in the end but beginners will be deterred by this surprisingly hard learning curve. Next part of this experiment was program installation. I started her out with Windows program installation. I had her install Photoshop CS4. She had no difficulty at all. I just mounted the compact disk to the virtual machine and let her take over. With Windows it was pretty straight forward. Auto play came up once it recognized the compact disk and then she began the install process. My friend said "No surprises here. It was very easy to install this program and get it functioning". Now for the program installation part on Linux. I did not have a version of Photoshop that is compatible with Linux so I asked her to install GIMP. It is a free alternative to Photoshop that does work with Linux. I let her get used to the layout of Ubuntu then told her to install it. For Ubuntu this was very easy to do. She just opened up Ubuntu Software Center and then just searched for GIMP and installed it, very straight forward and easy. Her words were "I did not

think that program installation could be any easier than the Windows program installation. I am surprised that this was actually easier". This is confirmed by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols who says Ubuntu's simple Add/Remove Applications the easiest and best way to install programs in Ubuntu.(www.desktoplinux.com) Afterwards I explained that not all program installation is this painless but for the most part the installation of programs is just as easy as Windows if not easier. It is when you want to install a Windows application on Ubuntu that things start getting difficult. Now for the final part of the experiment, setting up shares. Having a media server is a growing trend in the average home user now a day. The problem is not a lot of people know how to set up sharing between the computers. Especially if they are of two different operating systems. I had her start by setting up a share between the same operating system first. Windows was very easy for her. I did have to tell her how to do a few things but for the most part it was very quick and painless. This took about 10 minutes to set up a share between two windows systems. Setting up a share between the Linux systems was a tad more time consuming but in the end we were able to get it set up and working between the two Linux machines. It took roughly 30 minutes. It took this long only because the location and set up was a tad different in Linux. Now for the more difficult part of this experiment, setting up a share between Linux and Windows. This part of the experiment took 40 minutes. First I had her set up the master as the Windows machine and Linux as the client. This was pretty easy. Linux was able to see the shares pretty easily and all we had to do was enter the user name and password to connect and access the share. This process took maybe 20 minutes. Setting up Linux as the master and Windows as the client was a bit more difficult but took about the same amount of time. First we had to install

SAMBA. This program is used to allow operating systems other than Linux to connect to shares originating from Linux. Normally this is something I had issues within the past but the developers have came a long way in ease of setup. She just had to do a few clicks to get it set up. At first the windows machines could not see the shares but I fixed this. It was a windows glitch. After that it went just as smooth as the Windows share creation. Overall the process was pretty painless. Her words were "Setting up shares is so easy. If I had known how easy it was I would have done it a long time ago instead of using a flash drive or a compact disk to transfer files between computers". Amit Bhawani supports this by saying File sharing is another such advantage provided by home networking, providing an extremely effective storage solution. (www.quickonlinetips.com) Sharing files over the network is probably the most efficient way to transfer files from one computer to the other. Sadly most normal users fear that setting up shares is hard to do and stick to the old ways. The End is in Sight. In this Windows and Mac world we live in its hard to show people how easy and simple Linux is to use. Through this experiment I have taken a normal Windows user and showed them the ways of Linux. I doing so I believe that I have shown that Linux is no longer an operating system reserved for those elite Computer users. No longer is it an operating system that should be feared by the everyday user. Linux has evolved into an incredibly user friendly operating system, while still catering to those who want an operating system that is chocked full of features for the advanced user. In this experiment my test subject stated in just about every test thought that it was as easy if not easier to use than Windows. In each test I had her grade each process on a scale of 1-10 and then had her grade the operating system as well. She gave Linux a 7 and Windows an 8. She said the only reason she did not give Linux a better score than

Windows was because of the difficulty she had during the partition creation test. She loved the set up of Linux and how it looked and felt. From my perspective this was a successful attempt to show an everyday user that Linux is the way to go. Do I think she will go out and convert all her machines to Linux? No, but I do think she will think twice when she has to go and re-install Windows again. Or if anything else set up a dual boot system so she can have both worlds.

WORKS CITED Justin Pot. (2010, April 1). 7 Things That Are Easier To Do In Ubuntu Than In Windows http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-easier-ubuntu-windows/ Ubuntu Development Team. (2011, April 30). Device Names in Linux https://help.ubuntu.com/11.04/installation-guide/i386/device-names.html Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. (2008, Jan 11) The Easy Way to Install Programs in Ubuntu Linux http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS4927051079.html Amit Bhawani. (2009, July 28) Benefits of Home Networking http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2009/07/home-networking/ Ramesh JHA (2011, May 9) Ubuntu 11.04 vs Windows 7 http://blog.sudobits.com/2011/05/19/ubuntu-11-04-vs-windows-7/

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