Linux or Windows OS

Many a times Windows users talk about what Windows can do but Linux can’t. To be fair, they also need to know what Linux can do but Windows can’t.
After Reading this most article about both OS. I be sure, when Linux is better than Windows. oh really? lets we check it out ;p


Core OS Features:

1. It works its available today. Its not a vaporware and is available today.See some of the reasons below.
2. Linux doesn’t have the virus problems.
3. No Spyware. Not just spyware but none of those funny applications that keep doing things in the background.
4. Linux Doesn’t need defragging.
5. Linux doesn’t crash without any apparent reasons.In Linux the core operating system (kernel) is separate from the GUl (X-Window) from the applications (OpenOffice.org, etc). So even if the application crashes, the core operating system is not affected. In Windows (Microsoft prefers to call this tight integration) if the Browser crashes, it can take down the entire operating system.
6. Linux doesn’t crash if you accidently pulled out your USB key/pen drive.
7. Linux doesn’t require frequent re-installation. In Windows if the OS crashes, there is no easy way to recover this. Many IT support staff don’t know what to do and all they can do is re-install Windows. Which means that users applications and preferences are lost, and again needs to be installed. I haven’t seen anyone using Linux, requiring to re-install unless there is a hard drive failure. Most things in Linux can be fixed without requiring re-installation. The benefit of this is all the users preferences can be preserved even if the OS needs to be re-installed. This can be handled by creating a separate partition for the home directory.
8. Linux also doesn’t require rebooting when a new hardware device is added configured.
9. Most importantly Linux doesn’t reboot on its own! I have had a situation where Windows updated the system and then rebooted on its own, without my knowledge.
10. Linux doesn’t require frequent rebooting. Linux runs extremely stable, even if an application crashes, there is no need to reboot the whole system, just restart that application or service.
11. No licensing headaches. Yes Linux is free and you don’t know need to bother about the complexing licensing of per user/per PC/per server/etc.
12. Linux can read over a 100 different types of file systems. Windows is limited to its own two file systems. Well most general users may not care about this but its extremely useful is you are working in a mixed environment or you need to extract some data from a hard drive formatted on another computer.
13. You have the source code and the right to modify or fix things if you are a programmer. Many end users think this is not necessary but they will realize how important this is when their application vendor decides to discontinue support on a older version to promote a newer one.
14. Linux can install in logical partition or a second (slave hard drive as well) Windows can only be installed in a primary partition.
15. Linux is scalable right from the PDA/Cellphones to super computers.
16. Linux is running mission critical applications.
17. Linux has less bugs than commercial software, this is one of the main reasons for its stability.
18. You can also share the software with your friends and its completely legal to do so. Didn’t your teacher tell you in kindergarten that you should share things with your friends? Linux and Open Source actually encourage that while if you do that in Windows its not only considered illegal but they will call you a pirate!
19. Linux costs less, cause not only the OS is free but the applications are also free. Plus since Linux doesn’t have a virus problem, you also save on the recurring cost of Anti-Virus software. Note: You may still have to pay for support/training but the over all running cost is low.
20. Both Linux and Windows has shell environment Windows (know as command prompt). The shell environments in Linux (such as bash) are more powerful and you can write entire programs using the scripting language. This is extremely useful to automate repetitive tasks such as backup.
21. Linux can run from a CD or can be installed on the hard drive. Windows by default doesn’t have any such option. Using live CDs such as Ubuntu/Knoppix, users can try out Linux by booting from the CD, without the need to install the operating system.
22. Linux is also extremely portable, it can also run off pen drives/portable hardrives/thumb drives and more.
23. Did you know that in Windows, there is built in back-door entry so US government can see you data as and when they like? Yes the US NSA has the key build into every copy of Windows. In Linux there is no such thing possible as the operating system is open source and can easily be detected and disabled.
24. Linux has built in virtualization(XEN/KVM/VirtualBox/etc.) so you can run multiple copies of Linux or other operating systems simultaneously.
25. The Linux kernel comes shipped with an enormous load of hardware drivers. On Windows, a lot of hardware doesn’t work until you install the driver, this problem is worse with Vista. On Linux, a huge percentage of today’s common hardware works perfectly out-of-the-box.
26. Vendor independence. With proprietary operating system, you are dependent on the vendor who developed the operating system. With Linux you have a choice of vendors, so even if the vendor fails to give you support, you can always move to another vendor. Choice of vendors also means more competition, which means better value for money for the customer.
27. It won’t die or get killed like what happened with other fantastic but proprietary operating system such as OS/2, BeOS. Reason being, its open source and someone will maintain in and today there are many big companies behind and have bet huge money on Linux.
28. Unlike Windows, Linux doesn’t use registry. Most of the configuration is stored in plain text files, which are easy to manage/backup and transfer between systems. Registry is a pain to manage, very complex and your system configuration is stored in a proprietary format which needs special tools to open. The biggest pain with registry is when it gets corrupted, this problem is eliminated in Linux because it doesn’t use registry.
29. Linux is the most documented operating systems and most of these documentations are available for free. These documents are well written and explain computing concepts too.
30. Linux has more wider support from online forums, articles and most importantly the community. There are Linux Users groups is almost every country, city and small towns as well.

May just it can i write, cuz i so tired :D . I wish this post can be used as reference OS choosen.