Difference Between Windows OS and Linux OS

Operating System is the basic medium of communication between hardware and software. Operating Systems performs various tasks like Memory management, CPU scheduling, Access control and security, User Interface, Device management and so on. So selecting a good operating system for your computer is really very important. There are many operating systems available in the market. Some are open source and some are closed or proprietary. The two most commonly used operating systems are Linux OS and Windows OS.

Both Linux and Windows have their own advantages and features. Both of them have different architecture of functionality and also both of them have different user friendliness. Both are popular at their own level but on the basis of stats of usage it is observed that Linux is one of the most widespread and popular operating system as compared to Windows or Mac. Linux is present almost everywhere in the world and in every domain of work be it a nuclear power plant or be it McDonalds Linux is everywhere. Some of the most famous companies that use Linux OS and Linux products are: Google, twitter, facebook, amazon, IBM, McDonalds, NASA, NYSC, Tianhe-2, US portal and bank services. Not only this but Linux is also used in internet hosting, missiles and weapons and so on. The list is too long. So you can see how Linux is replacing window OS.

Now let us see some basic differences between the Linux OS and windows OS: 

Linux is a free operating system and is a product of open source software development. While windows is a private or closed OS developed by Microsoft.

There is a freedom of distribution of Linux through any source like website or book but this is not valid with Microsoft. It is a strong illegal activity to distribute this product of Microsoft. It costs around $ 50 to $ 400 if you buy it. The range depends on various versions available.

The open source community has formed the Linux kernel and it is managed officially by Linus Torvalds. But Microsoft created the windows with a fix number of developing professionals.

Till now nearly 60 to 100 viruses are reported for Linux but according to analysis of some professionals it is found that nearly 60,000 viruses are reported for windows till now. So Linux is very much secured as compared to windows. And if anyone will buy a good anti-virus for windows that would cost around $ 10 to $ 300 or even more.

Linux is preceded by basic terminal or CLI while windows is preceded by MS-DOS.

The default user interface used by Linux is Gnome or KDE that depends on distro basically while for windows we have Graphical (Windows Aero) as default user interface.

The license used for Linux development is GNU that is free while windows is proprietary.

Some versions of Linux that are available are: Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat, Debian, Arch Linux, Android etc. And different versions of windows are windows 98, windows xp, windows 7, windows 8 etc.

So these are some basic differences which everyone must know about Linux OS and Windows OS. Both are good OS but it depends on the need of user that which operating system is best for his work. We will learn more about Linux in later posts so stay connected.