Comparison of Windows and Linux

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Microsoft Windows and Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) are two major competing computer operating systems. Windows is the most prominent operating system under Proprietary software licenses and Linux is the most prominent operating system under a Free Software license. Windows is generally released in a closed source fashion, though selected partners may receive a shared source license, and Linux is almost always released in an Open Source fashion, but sometimes includes proprietary components. The two operating systems compete for user base in the personal computer market as well as the server market. Both operating systems are used in government offices, schools, business offices, homes, supercomputers, intranet and internet servers, and more.

Historically, Windows has tended to dominate in the desktop and personal computer markets (about 89.2% of the desktop market share), and Linux has achieved between 50 - 80% market share of the web server, render farm, and supercomputer markets.^[1] They differ in philosophy, cost, ease of use, versatility, and stability, with each seeking to improve in their respective perceived weak areas.

Typically, some major areas of perceived weaknesses regularly cited have included the poor ease of "out of box" mass market use for Linux, and poor system stability for Windows, both of which are areas of rapid development in the two camps. Perceived key strengths of Linux have included the low cost and high degree of openness and configurability while adhering to ISO and IEEE standards, whereas Windows has a careful anticipation of mass-market user requirements and has created standardization around its products through market dominance. Comparisons of the two tend to reflect the respective origins, historic user base and distribution model of each.

Contents 1 Difficulties in comparing Windows and Linux 2 Total cost of ownership 3 Desktop 4 Installation 5 Accessibility and Usability 6 Stability 7 Support 7.1 Facts 8 Programs 9 Security 9.1 Permissions 9.1.1 Linux and Unix-like systems 10 See also 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Difficulties in comparing Windows and Linux

There are several factors that may make it difficult to compare Windows and Linux.

• "Linux" can have different meanings, i.e.in the strict sense merely the name of a system kernel and in the usual sense collections of programs know as Linux distributions. There are many of these, each with different functionalities.
• Windows, and many distributions of Linux, come in different editions, each with different functionalities.
• Price and support differ based on editions, distributors, and OEM products.^[2]
• Major OEM vendors of new computers may also choose to bundle additional useful software in addition to the operating system installed.
• There are often multiple programs to choose from that accomplish the same task within each operating system, each with a different range of functionalities.
• There are conflicting claims about each operating system from the marketing and research done on the topic.
• Microsoft sells Windows under many different licenses, ranging from completely closed source (default) to different levels of shared source.
• Linux is generally free and open source, so many hundreds of distribution's and variations have been made.

[edit] Total cost of ownership

In 2004, Microsoft launched a marketing campaign named "Get the Facts" to encourage users to switch from Linux to Windows Server System.^[3] Microsoft claims that its products have an overall lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than open source programs because of its ease of use, resulting in less work and lower staff wages.^[4]

However, Microsoft's figures are disputed by a variety of organizations, notably Novell and The Register.^[5] Some websites suggest that some common inaccuracies in Microsoft's figures stem from including figures for Unix and Solaris with figures for Linux.^[6] Higher staffing costs may result from the expense of employing Linux administrators, ignoring the fact that Linux system administration tends to be more efficient and each administrator is able to handle more servers.^[6]

In 2004, The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority warned Microsoft that an advertisement using research that claimed "Linux was [...] 10 times more expensive than Windows Server 2003", was "misleading", as the hardware chosen for the Linux server was needlessly expensive.^[7] Linux, in fact, has a much lower requirement for modern hardware than Windows. Most modern versions of Linux will still run on a Pentium 1 with 128 MB RAM. Some distributions, such as Slackware, will run on an i486 with 16 MB RAM [3].

[edit] Desktop

	Windows	Linux	Notes
Desktop Market Share	Estimated 89.2%	Estimated 3.3%, often used in dual-boot computers	According to W3C, May 2006, judged by web traffic on a technology site.[8]
Pre-installation	Pre-installed by default in most new desktop PCs	Pre-installed by default in some new desktop PCs	Microsoft's agreement with vendors to sell only the Windows operating system is being challenged in court by French consumer rights groups.
Window Managers/Desktop Environments	Only one available WM per release, parts of which may be modified; third party software such as WindowBlinds is required for some modification	GNOME, KDE, Enlightenment, Xfce, Openbox, Fluxbox, etc. may be enhanced with Beryl or Compiz	Different Window managers provide users with a uniquely different method of interacting with the computer.
System consoles	The Command Prompt exists for power users. A new .NET based command line environment similar to that provided in Unix-like operating systems called Windows PowerShell has been developed. Currently, Cygwin provides a UNIX-like terminal for Windows.	Strongly integrated with system console. All applications can be scripted through the terminal, 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.

It is very difficult to estimate the number of Linux or Windows users as the former are mostly not required to register their copies and a great number of pirated Windows copies exist. The above chart cites a study by the W3C of which operating system was used while hitting certain sites. This does not reflect the total marketshare for either Microsoft or Linux; it simply estimates the desktop marketshare (NOTE, does not include servers, please see section below). The above chart also points to desktop environments: some Linux distributions may not come with all the desktop environments described above, some may come with more.

Both Windows and Linux include shells. A shell, typically displayed in a system console, allows users to tell the computer to perform tasks ranging from the simple (for example, copying a file) to the complex (compiling and installing new software). Shells are powerful but can be confusing to new users. Some complex tasks are more easily accomplished through shells, such as piping, or scripting.

[edit] Installation

	Windows	Linux	Notes
Ease of Install	Generally easy to install.	Varies greatly by distribution. Some distributions require source to be copied and compiled by hands whereas some have a very user-friendly GUI.	[9][10][11][12]
Install time	Estimated to be an hour[13]	Can range from 6 minutes to over an hour, depending on distribution. Can be compiled from source in a few hours if not using the installer.	Please see footnotes for Ease of Install.
Drivers	Often drivers must be installed separately. If not included in install media they must be provided by manufacturer. Most common drivers are available in the Windows install or after a quick Internet update. The process of installing drivers is mostly automatized.	Most free drivers available are included in most distributions or be found in online archives. Some devices (e.g. graphics cards, wireless adapters) do not have free drivers available due to licensing issues, but proprietary drivers are available from manufacturers or special archives. Some devices allow using Windows drivers. For some devices no usable drivers are available.
Installation via CDs	May be installed through WinPE and BartPE. However, only the former is endorsed by Microsoft.	Almost all Linux distributions now have a live CD that may be used for install.[14]
Pre-installed software	Some multimedia and home use software (IE, Media Player, Notepad, WordPad, Paint...) plus OEM bundled software. Windows Vista Includes IE7, Windows Mail, Windows Media Centre, etc. Depending on which edition you purchase.	All main distributions contain numerous programs: Multimedia, Graphics, Internet, Office suites, Games, System utilities and alternative Desktop environments. Some distributions specialise in Education, Games, or Security.	Microsoft's methods of bundling software were deemed illegal in the case United States v. Microsoft.[15]
Not pre-installed software	A gigantic pool of free software, shareware, freeware, and commercial software for every purpose is available. The programs come with the required libraries and are normally installed individually and easily. Deinstallation is equally easy but often components and registry entries are left behind.	An large pool of free software and some shareware, freeware and commercial software is available. Distribution-approved programs may be very easily installed in large batches with dependencies to shared libraries being taken care of. New packaging systems allow a Windows-like installation of a limited number of programs in the user sections. Other programs are generally installable with difficulty. Some Windows programs are usable. Perfect and easy batch-deinstallation of distribution-approved programs is possible in a consistent system; with other programs deinstallation is difficult without special precautions.
Partitioning	Format the drive before partitioning.[16][17]	Allows easy resizing of partitions without losing data, may install multiple operating systems.[18]	Some third party tools for Windows may allow better partitioning than the built in partitioning tools.
Boot Loader	May boot to multiple operating systems through a Microsoft boot loader.	May boot to multiple operating systems through GRUB or LILO.[19]	For a Windows and Linux Dual-Boot System, it is easiest to install Windows first and then Linux.

Linux distributions used to be difficult for the average user to install.^[20] Today, most distributions have simplified the installation and offer a "LiveDistro" system allowing users to boot fully functional Linux systems directly from a CD or DVD with the option of installing them on the hard drive.

The Windows install process uses a wizard to guide users through the install process. Drivers are often installed separately.

[edit] Accessibility and Usability

	Windows	Linux	Notes
User Focus	Microsoft has done extensive research concerning the needs of their users, resulting in a well functioning and consistent GUI. Focus is on usability, but with increased safety concern in new versions.	The quality of graphical design varies between distributions. User friendly distributions such as Ubuntu combine well-functioning usability and safety, whereas other distributions aimed at professionals feature some very powerful programs but have no GUI or rudimentary graphical front-ends and are not usable by the majority of users, focusing much more on safety.
Consistency between versions	User interaction with software is generally consistent between versions, releases, and editions.	Highly customized usability differs between distributions, versions, window managers/desktop environments, and programs.
Consistency between applications	All Microsoft software follows the same guidelines for GUI, although not all software developed for Windows by third parties follows these GUI guidelines.	Much of the software that comes with a distribution is sourced from elsewhere; it may not follow the same GUI guidelines and generally causes inconsistencies, e.g. different look and feel of different programs. However, there are many standardisation attempts for major packaged distributions -- see GTK+, Qt etc. Such efforts are often interlinked with the GNOME and KDE window managers, amongst others, which include collections of consistent programs.	[citation needed]
Customization	Source code may be purchased for modification, or third party tools may create modifications.	All source code is freely available for modification.
Accessibility	Both Windows and Linux offer accessibility options,[21] such as high contrast displays and larger text/icon size, text to speech and magnifiers.

[edit] Stability

	Windows	Linux	Notes
General stability	Windows variants based on the NT kernel (Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista) are considered stable. Earlier versions (95, 98, 98 SE, ME) were not.	Inherited the stability of UNIX; acknowledged to be stable.	Instability can be caused by poorly written programs, aside from intrinsic OS stability.
Device Driver stabilty	Device drivers are provided by Microsoft or written by the hardware manufacturer. Microsoft also runs a Certification program.	Are often reverse engineered to work for Linux. Some vendors contribute to open-source drivers or provide closed-source drivers. Specifically designed server lines exist.	Crashes can be caused by hardware problems or poorly written device drivers.
Downtime	Reboots are usually required for driver/software updates.	Linux itself only needs to restart for kernel updates.[22], unless a special program is used to load the new kernel and excute it (kexec)	In terms of potential uptime, lists of the highest web server uptimes had shown Linux and Windows to be level.[23] These lists only include extremely well-configured servers, which do not necessarily reflect average performance.
Recovery	Some programs that crash may be closed through the task manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL or through the command line in professional versions of Windows. Reboots are sometimes required.	All processes except for init may be terminated from the command line. In KDE applications can be closed using CTRL+ALT+ESC or by KSystemGuard by pressing CTRL+ESC. SysRQ allows low-level system manipulation and crash recovery if configured. Reboots are seldom required.
Miscellaneous	May have problems with memory management and instability in the API.	Linux forums report X crashes, sometimes because of a badly written GUI program or because of network problems.

For an operating system to be subjectively 'stable', numerous components must operate synchronously. Not all of these components are under the control of OS vendor; while Linux and Windows kernels may be stable, poorly written applications and drivers can hamstring both. Much of stability, then, is the extent to which the operating system is structured to thwart the consequences of bad behavior by third party installations.

Much of the reputation Windows has for instability can be traced to Windows 95, 98, and ME, which were notorious for displaying the blue screen of death (BSOD) upon crashing. Three weaknesses with these particular Windows versions increased the likelihood such a crash would occur:

• Full 16-bit compatibility. When memory management of the DOS subsystem failed, it would often prompt a BSOD. Windows XP has no true 16-bit support; it emulates it in a virtual sandbox.

• Direct hardware access. Unlike Windows XP, Windows 9x had no hardware abstraction layer. A program or driver that attempted to access protected memory, or interfaced poorly with the hardware, could cause a BSOD.

• Poor DLL management. DLLs are external libraries of functions that prevent unnecessary repetition in a program. Windows 9x had no protections on system DLLs, and poorly written programs would often overwrite them at will with incorrect versions. Over time, the general stability of the system would decrease. Windows 2000 and later versions have a routine called Windows File Protection that prevents the replacement of important system files.

These are not the exclusive causes of instability, but their correction in the Windows NT codebase has dramatically improved the stability of all subsequent Windows variants: Windows 2000 and XP.

[edit] Support

	Windows	Linux	Notes
Community support	MSDN, many local fee-for-service & "knowledgeable neighbor" Windows techs avail in person.	Online forums and discussion boards, USENET, IRC...	There are many paid local Windows techs. Fewer for Linux. Massive free community support for Linux.
Phone support	By Microsoft or OEM, where paid for.	Red Hat, Novell, Oracle, Linspire, where paid for
Documentation	Extensive help files and online documentation	Extensive help files and online documentation

[edit] Facts

	Windows	Linux	Notes
Ease of Installation via installer	Generally easy to install through an installer	Generally easy to install through an installer for compiling from source please see next box	[24][25][26][27]
Ease of installation via compiler	Generally not installed by compiling from source	Some distributions may be compiled from source rather than installed via installer. Generally not easy. [weasel words]
Install time	Estimated to be an hour[28]	Can range from 6 minutes to over an hour, depending on distribution. Can be compiled from source in a few hours if not using the installer.	Please see footnotes for Ease of Install.
Installation via LiveCDs	May be installed through WinPE and BartPE. However, only the former is endorsed by Microsoft.	Almost all Linux distributions now have a live CD that may be used for install.[29]
Drivers	Most common drivers are available in the Windows install or after a quick Internet update, the rest must be provided by manufacturer and installed separately.	Free drivers generally included with distribution, otherwise may be found in online archives. Proprietary drivers are available from manufacturers or special archives. Some devices allow using Windows drivers. For some devices no usable drivers are available.
Pre-installed software	Some multimedia and home use software (IE, Media Player, Notepad, WordPad, Paint...) plus OEM bundled software	All main distributions contain numerous programs: Multimedia, Graphics, Internet, Office suites, Games, System utilities and alternative Desktop environments. Some distributions specialize in Education, Games, or Security.	Microsoft's methods of bundling software were deemed illegal in the case United States v. Microsoft.[30]
Software not pre-installed	A great pool of free software, shareware, freeware, and commercial software for every purpose is available. The programs come with the required libraries and are normally installed individually and easily. Deinstallation is equally easy but often components and registry entries are left behind.	An enormous pool of free software and some shareware, freeware and commercial software is available. Distribution-approved programs may be very easily installed in large batches with dependencies to shared libraries being taken care of. New packaging systems allow a Windows-like (or better) installation of a limited number of programs in the user sections. Other programs are generally installable with difficulty. Some Windows programs are usable. Perfect and easy batch-deinstallation of distribution-approved programs is possible in a consistent system; with other programs deinstallation is difficult without special precautions.
Partitioning	Format the drive before partitioning.[31][32] Cannot create multiple partitions.[33]	Allows easy resizing of partitions without losing data, may install multiple operating systems.[34]	Some third party tools for Windows may allow better partitioning than the built in partitioning tools.
Boot Loader	May boot to multiple operating systems through a Microsoft boot loader.[citation needed]	May boot to multiple operating systems through GRUB or LILO.[35]	For a Windows and Linux dual-boot system, it is easiest to install Windows first and then Linux.

[edit] Programs

This section does not cite its references or sources. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since February 2007.

	Windows	Linux	Notes
Emulation	Cygwin or Interix may be used to compile programs dependent on Linux libraries, but Cygwin cannot be used to run Linux binaries.	Win4Lin, Cedega, CrossOver, and Wine may be used to run Windows Programs on Linux
Virtualization	VMware, Virtual PC, Parallels, Xen on new hardware	VMWare, Xen, Parallels, Linux-VServer, QEMU	With virtualization you may run an operating system within another operating system.
Package management system	No system wide package management system. The Windows Installer can handle some Microsoft installers but does not handle 3rd-party software.	APT, YaST, YUM, RPM...	PM simplifies the process of installing new software, updating it, and managing dependencies. There is no standard across the board yet.
Updates	Windows Update handles only updates to Microsoft software Some third party software has its own separate update manager	Package manager handles updates in most distributions. Only software that's under package manager control will be updated (which is usually the case).
Cross-platform (software)	Many programs are written with Windows specific frameworks. Source compatibility with some UNIX programs is done via POSIX subsystem (Windows NT and 2000), or Windows Services for UNIX (XP,2003,Vista)	Some programs are written with Linux specific frameworks. Compatibility between Unix-like operating systems (such as Solaris and OS X) through various standards, such as the POSIX thread standard. Wine allows many Windows program to run on Linux	Some companies make versions of their products to work on both Windows and Linux.
Cross-platform (development)	Many Microsoft libraries have not been ported to other operating systems Many of Microsofts frameworks can be replaced by counterparts in other operating systems	The GNU toolchain has been ported on Windows, as well as GTK, Qt and many other libraries. Many projects already have Windows builds	Software written in cross-platform languages and frameworks is usually easily ported.
Cross-platform (hardware)	Only x86 and the 64-bit extension set to X86 (x86-64) are supported	i386, x86-64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, sparc, DEC Alpha, ARM, MIPS, PA-RISC, S390, IA-64, SuperH and m68k, and many PDAs and embedded systems.	Historically, GNU began working on 68000 but always had a strong multiplatform vocation.[36] The first version of Linux was developed for the i386.
Backwards Compatibility within a release	Was high priority before Windows Vista	Varies significantly[citation needed] The Linux Standard Base (LSB) aims to improve this.	This refers to the general backwards compatibility of software on the operating system within a single release.
Backwards Compatibility between releases	Programs from previous may not work on the current release.[37] The new Windows Vista "API implementation is not backward compliant with XP"[38]	Programs that use LSB functions only will work for at least six years on any LSB-compliant distribution.[39] Non-LSB frameworks and libraries have other compatibility policies	This refers to the backwards compatibility of the operating system between releases.
Compilers(purchased)	Several IDEs for sale such as Microsoft's Visual Studio	Several IDEs for sale such as PGI, Intel, and Absoft's Fortran compilers[40][41] and many come free with a distribution[42]
Compilers(free)	The GNU Compiler Collection, Eclipse, NetBeans, lcc32, Borland C++, Visual Studio Express (Visual C++, C#, and VB.NET compilers)	The GNU Compiler Collection, Eclipse, NetBeans, Mono, Geany

Linux distributions come with a great deal of software which can be installed for free, with an especially large collection of computer programming software.^[43] Debian comes with more than 15,000 software packages.^[44]

Microsoft has had a longstanding emphasis on backwards compatibility^{[citation needed]}. In general, the Windows API is consistent over time^{[citation needed]}; those programs designed for earlier versions of Windows often run without issues on later versions^{[citation needed]}. For the sake of progress, however, Microsoft sometimes draws a line precluding support of very old programs. That first happened with Windows 95, where some purely 16 bit Windows 3.1 applications would not work, and again with Windows XP, where certain mixed-bit applications would not work. 64-bit versions of Windows (XP-64 and Vista-64) drop 16-bit support completely. However, 16 bit emulation and the enormous array of application-specific tweaks within new Windows versions ensure that compatibility with old applications remains very high.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Security

In terms of security, it is important to remember that the ideal victim software for a malware piece is one that is as widely used as possible (to maximize spread), as slowly developed/patched as possible (to maximize damage time, and minimize malware development effort), and as monolithic as possible (to maximize potential damage extent inside the system, and minimize complexity of the malware program). Windows is a remarkable example of these three characteristics.

On the other hand, individual Linux programs are very dynamic, so potential malware should evolve fast to keep up. Moreover, a Linux system is very compartmentalized, both by separating user privileges among them and with the administrator (root), and because very different software pieces coexist, without a central "backbone" to act as spread vector inside the OS.

	Windows	Linux	Notes
Viruses	Viruses have been written for Windows, many thousand have been propagated. Users are advised to install and run anti-virus programs	File viruses have been written for Linux, none have yet propagated successfully[45][46][47][48] There are, however, so-called worms that infect Linux machines[49]	A list of viruses written for Linux does exist.
Spyware and malware	Over 11,000 malware programs surfaced in 2005 alone.	Only 800 were ever witnessed.	Figures by Kaspersky Lab[50]
Open vs. Closed	Claims its platform is more secure because its code is hidden, thus providing security by obscurity. Only company programmers can fix bugs.	Claims its platform is more secure because all of its code is reviewed by so many people that bugs become a shallow phenomenon (known as Linus's law).
Response speed	Claims closed source offers a faster and more effective response to security issues,[51] though critical bug fixes are only released once a month[52]	Claims open source offers a faster and more effective response to security issues[53] often patching bugs in a matter of hours.[54]
Impact of Viruses	Many Desktop computers and Laptops would crash or run slowly affecting business front offices and home users.	Viruses can make computers run slowly. None have successfully propagated on a network of Linux systems (lacking root access).[55]	It is widely purported that hackers create viruses for the widest impact.
User Accounts	Except for Windows Vista, users typically run as administrator, allowing malicious programs full control over the system.	Users typically run as limited accounts, preventing malicious programs from gaining total control of the system.	A malicious program executed under a limited account in both Linux and Windows may erase all of that user's data.[citation needed]
Quality of code	In a series of independent studies by source code auditing firm Reasoning, it was found that the Linux TCP/IP stack contained fewer programming defects than closed source competitors[56] and that the Apache web server source code was of equivalent quality to closed source competitors.[57] Likewise, the firm Coverity found that Linux in late 2004 already contained fewer security flaws than proprietary software and that, despite a 5% increase in the code size over the following six months, the total number of flaws fell over the same period.[58]

[edit] Permissions

This section does not cite its references or sources. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since August 2006.

Both Windows NT-based systems and Linux support permissions on their respective filesystems.

[edit] Linux and Unix-like systems

Linux—and Unix-like systems in general—have a “user, group, other” approach to filesystem permissions at a minimum.^[59] This can be seen by typing ls -l in a text terminal on a Linux system. There also Access Control Lists available on some filesystems, which extends the traditional Unix-like permissions system. Security patches like SELinux and PaX add Role-Based Access Controls, which add even finer-grained controls over which users and programs can have access to certain resources or perform certain operations. Some distributions, such as Fedora, CentOS, and Red Hat use SELinux out of the box, although most do not.^{[citation needed]}

As of Windows XP, most home users still run all of their software with Administrator accounts;^[60] as this is the default setup upon installation. This gives users full read and write access to all files on the filesystem. However, Microsoft have worked to improve this in their latest version of Windows, Windows Vista.

Most Linux distributions provide different user accounts for the various daemons.^[61] In common practice, user applications are run on unprivileged accounts, to provide Least user access. In some distributions, administrative tasks can only be performed through explicit switching from the user account to the root account (tools such as su and sudo are very common).

[edit] See also

• Comparison of Linux distributions
• Comparison of Windows and Mac OS X
• Comparison of operating systems
• Comparison of computer shells
• Free software movement
• Open source vs. closed source
• Linux adoption
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar
• Halloween documents

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Linux.org: Free downloads of vast variety of Linux distributions
• Microsoft: Get The Facts (Windows Support)
• Novell's comparison (Linux Support)
• The Register: Get the Real Facts (Linux support)
• The Register: Security Report
• Underrated Linux vs Overrated Windows (Sauveros.com)
• TCO comparisons:
  • Get the Truth on Linux Management (PDF) - by Enterprise Management Associates in February 2006
  • Total Cost of Ownership for Linux in the Enterprise (PDF) - by Robert Frances Group in July 2002
  • Windows 2000 Versus Linux in Enterprise Computing (Microsoft)
  • Study: Linux Is Still Cheaper Than Windows (PCworld.com)
  • Linux vs. Windows: Total Cost of Ownership Comparison (Cybersource)