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Dear friends,
i want to know the exact difference between the Windows and Linux Operating system. What type of options do they provide to the users. Which is the best - Linux or Windows?
And also i want to know the exact difference between the Linux and Unix. Please help me out for this. :)
Exact difference? Well, that would take about 10 pages or so. It would be easier to just print out everything at microsoft.com and linux.org, then compare. Basically, Linux is open source, which means that you can view the sourcecode. From that, you can make changes to anything you want. Because anyone can reprogram part of linux, more people have worked on linux, with the result of it being a lot more stable. Open source makes it easier to find security holes, but also a lot easier to patch them. Anyone can write a patch for linux, whereas you have to wait for microsoft to release one (which probably has a hole in it).
Which is best? That depends on you. Do you know anything about programming? What about command line interface? Do you prefer point and click, or do you want to know how things run? Windows is designed so you can sit down at the machine, and do your work. Linux is designed so you can sit down at the machine, and figure out how it works. I personally don't like any microsoft product if I can help it, but saying which is best is all up to the user. Many people prefer mac, which you didn't even mention.
Linux vs Unix? Linux was designed to look/act/feel like unix. But when you say unix, what do you mean? BSD (freeBSD, openBSD, netBSD), SystemV, Mach, etc etc. There are many differents OS's that are all under the *nix title. The term Unix is basically a trade mark for systemV, which I believe is owned by Novell. Unless you get into kernal hacking, you will not realize much of a difference, although there are some differences in operation between BSD and SystemV. Solaris is quite different though. Its like saying Windows. Do you mean Win 95, Win98, Win98SE, WinME, WinNT4, Win2K(pro/server/etc), WinXP(home/pro). They are all the same, in a way, yet all completely different.
Then there is alway Mac OSX. That is a Mac OS, running on a BSD unix machine, with the Mach kernel. Its a combination of Mach, and NeXT, which was another *nix variant.
The only way to determine which is best is to sit down and use them. Its all about what you want to do with it. Are you looking for a desktop OS, workstaion OS, server OS? Do you just want to play games, do graphics, program, or need a high scale database server?
Linux and Windows are two very different operating systems. The main points of difference can be summed up as follows:
1) Windows costs a heck of a lot of money (since you're an Indian, Rs.4000 for Windows XP Home and about Rs. 12000 for Windows XP professional) while Linux is free for download. If you don't feel like downloading Linux, you can easily pick up a book (I reccomend The Red Hat Linux 7.2 Bible Unlimited Edition) for less than Rs. 500.
2) Windows is probably the most insecure OS around while Linux is safe and reasonably secure.
3) Windows is very user friendly while Linux can be a real bitch to setup and learn.
As you seem to be a newbie, I reccomend that you first learn Windows inside out before you think of installing Linux on your computer. Linux requires that you have a high level of comfort around your PC. If you do know Windows well, check out http://linuxnewbie.org for tons of info on Linux.
Cheers,
cgkanchi
well friend firedevil i can say that linux has a free source i mean the source code is avaliable
and so u can do anything u want and make it a whole new thing for yourself....ok..
more over if u see windows...then there are still lot many bugs... i agree with cgkanchi in this
also it is a bit difficult to get it ..only if u have pirated version or else u have to shell out money.... and wait for microsoft..
well .. otherwise... still u can find some points..then go to msn.com and linux.org.
and compare...
all the best...
intruder..
well now i will able to find the difference between the Windows & Linux environment. now, i am eager to know more about Linux. well friends thank u very much.
I would suggest, for a newcomer to linux, finding a prepackaged distro. . .
though somewhat large, MANDRAKE LINUX (www.linux-mandrake.com) is a great distribution for people converting from windows to linux. . .as I have done, about a year ago.
Yes, starting with Mandrake was definetly the easier route to take...or of course there is always redhat...
If you've installed Windows a bunch of times you might have noticed that it's retarted to do a complete install, and so instead of doing this you choose which programs you want and forget about filling your windows box with junk...similarily when starting with linux, mandrake is a good distro.. but after a while of learning/tweaking, you notice all you've been doing is cleaning up the junk that the distro installed for you. This is why Debian is so beautiful, apt-get what you want...and only what you want