Compare Windows And Linux

Hello, my dear friend!
Joking. Fellows!
I research some info (for my personal experience, not for assignment or smt) about Windows and Linux operating systems. I’m comparing these operating systems to know what’s really a difference between them, minus or plus both of them.
Do you have thoughts about this theme?
I’ll be glad to hear!

Once you get used to do everything in Linux, is quite rewarding being able to install, reinstall, newly install new machines that have everything you want, ever.

The biggest plus of Windows, for me, is some hardware support, particularly for laptops, in what concerns battery usage.

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Well, Linux is much better for many people. Why:

  1. keeping Linux up to date requires 10% of the time and effort it requires on Windows
  2. better basic security, it is difficult to catch malware just by clicking on a link because downloaded files are not executable by default. Better performance because you do not need a virus scanner
  3. more freedom, if you found a desktop gui you like you don’t have to change it just because the manufactorer changes it, you can update and keep the desktop you prefer
  4. real time performance possible if you need it, e.g. for audio mixing or control tasks
  5. runs well on very small machines like Raspberry Pi and very big machines (super computers)
  6. a good choice for servers, and if you have it locally on your laptop it is easy to administer a server

Windows is better if you need software that is only available for Windows. I don’t need any of it… Nowadays you can even use MS Teams and MS Office on Linux if you need it.

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Windows has “Windows file manager”. For me that worth more than all other arguments (pro and con) put together.

Is that a pro or a con?

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What do you think? :slight_smile:
Anything comparable in terms of usability in Linux or Mac(Finder) world?

I have no idea. I don’t know what it is (or if it is the file manager, I don’t remember it having anything special). Last time I checked the file system in windows was still a mess.

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The OS that runs the software you need is the most important criteria. Next to that is what do other people have so they can help you and so you are consistent with them. Right up there is what are you already familiar with. Beyond that you will do your research and use that to justify the OS you are emotionally attached to.

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I think the windows file manager is an astonishingly poor piece of software. On Linux, since I prefer to work on the console and am a vim user, I use ranger, which I think is pretty good.

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Ok, opinions. I think exactly the contrary.

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What does it provide that makes it so special in your opinion? I use Linux Mint and as far as I see the file managers are pretty much the same.

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I’ve not tried a Linux file manager recently but I have time to time during the last ~30 years.
Icons are huge so we cannot see really much of our directory list, file associations were lousy, directory navigation an horror experience, file finding iden-iden, and so on. And if we go to Finder o Mac even worst.

Uhm, I think you are just used to something familiar. None of these things are issues since many many years.

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Yes, might be that … or the contrary. Non Windows users have really no idea how the File manager is better.

I use both Windows and Linux.

The file explorer on windows is such a piece of crap that I switched to xplorer2 and coming back to the file explorer is always a pain in the neck when I have to use it. For searching I use Everything. That is superb. Contrariwise, the file search in the file explorer is unbearably clunky and slow.

In Linux I use the shell command utilities, and I’m a happy user always.

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Agree, I use Agent Ransack – Mythicsoft

On Linux you can choose between different file managers, simple ones for beginners and more advanced ones. I now use nemo: Ayush Sharma ☕ + 🎧 + 🕹️ - Nemo - The Ubuntu file manager you didn’t know you needed

And of course you can adjust icon size and theme to your taste…

The feature I like most is if you use Nemo as desktop manager, you can place any number of pictures on your desktop and resize them individually.

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Linux benefits that I can think of:

  • Linux does not require an online account to start your system
  • Linux can be optimized more for productivity
  • A larger part of Linux configuration (if not all) can be easily configured from the command line.
    This allows for more easily reproducing system configurations.
    Windows does allow it too but it’s often more difficult or tooling is more expensive.

Windows benefits that I can think of:

  • Office products run well*
  • Most enterprise applications and most hardware works best with Windows

By the way, most of Microsoft Azure’s cloud runs Linux too.

*Sometimes I wonder whether it is Microsoft’s sole purpose in life to ensure that Office will never work on Linux. If it would, then many more people could/should/would switch from Windows to Linux.

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Can you make it, even approximately, like this?

It is hard to answer this without mixing in personal opinions.
There are some differences on the technical levels (Monolitic kernel in Linux vs. hybrid / micro kernel in Windows) and some design choices.

I’d say that Windows is a GUI first operating system. It is built to work with GUI and pointing device.
It has a lot of baggage: Runs almost any software made for in the last ~20 year yet it also means its file system isn’t the fastest or built using the latest technologies. It has the average user in mind.

Linux has different design choices. It has monolithic kernel which is optimized for speed and efficiency above all. It is a kernel that changes over time. The design choices for the user space is based on layers which depends on different projects which are not always coherent, so you either stick to an all in one distribution or creating / borrowing others recipes.

I am using all 3 major OS on a weekly basis.
For me, at personal, I prefer Windows. The basic experience is working out of the box.
I also prefer its design of using DLL’s (Which are mostly shipped with the programs). Namely it is easier to have portable, independent programs on the computer.
In Linux the model is to have all dll’s at one place, while it is better storage wise, it makes harder to have different versions at once.

I can live with Windows’ being a bit slower and less efficient yet allows me the control over different programs, simple and predictable UI and being backed up by a big company which addresses issues like security and bugs for the whole eco system.

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