Linuxvswindows

PROJECT ON COMPARISON OF VARIOUS OPERATING SYSTEMS Prepared by: Mr. Harish Morwani IT Faculty INC- Gandhinagar

Introduction to Operating System

“ QUOTES IN PRAISE OF OPERATING SYSTEM”  “An elephant is a mouse with an Operating System.” —Knuth  “The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity — the rest is overhead for the operating system.” — Nicholas Ambrose

The operating system is a set of system software routines that sits between the application program and the hardware.

User

Application program Interfaces Operating system

Hardware

Service  • Software routine that runs in support of      another program.  • Generally, a service performs single task 

•OS is a repository for common services  •–I/O support—open, close, read, write  •–Launch a program  •–And so on

The operating system routines that interface with the application program represent a consistent platform for running application programs. Application program

Application program Platform

Operating system

Operating system

Model ABC computer hardware

Model XYZ computer hardware

Modern OS Application program layer

Operating system layer User interface (shell)

File management

Device management

Processor (or process) management

Memory management

Communication services

Hardware layer

The user clicks Open The shell interprets the command File management finds the file Device management reads the file from disk

Open

Application program layer

Shell

Operating system layer

File management

Device management

Hardware

Linux vs. Windows

Linux  Linux was originally built by Linus Torvalds (as a student) at the University of Helsinki in 1991.  The latest version of Linux is Linux 2.6.15  Linux is a Unix-like, Kernel-based, fully memory-protected, multi-user multitasking operating system  It runs on a wide range of hardware from PCs to Macs.

Windows  A Product of Microsoft Corporation Ltd.  Founders of Microsoft are Bill Gates & Paul Allen (1975)  First version of Windows – Windows 1.0 released in 1985 by Microsoft.  Latest version is Windows Vista (2005)  Windows is a GUI based operating system  It has powerful networking capabilities, is multitasking, and extremely user friendly images

THE BATTLE STARTS

Computer Users

Computer Users Cont.  Many beginner users find Windows easier to use than other operating systems  Windows has been enjoying an overall advantage over Linux due to Microsoft’s market success because of its broad focus aimed at all kinds of users  Linux has been primary used by advanced computer users – programmers and developers

Fundamental Differences between Linux & Windows One fundamental difference between the two systems is the fact that Linux is "open source". This means that unlike Windows where you only get access to the compiled programs that you run on your machine, with Linux you also get the original computer code to examine and tweak (modify) at your leisure. This also goes to show that Linux users are more advanced

Comparing Applications  Linux falls short in the number of different applications available for it.  There are much more various applications available for Microsoft since the population of Window’s users is greater than Linux’s  Since Microsoft is more popular, the Hardware products are aimed at the biggest market – Windows, such that the product would be sold and used widely

Comparing Applications Cont.  Linux programs are distributed freely since they are not developed by commercial software companies, but instead are created under the GNU Public License, which makes the software free  Linux software lacks the GUI and is therefore not “liked” by many users  Windows has its own share of problems – the fact that some software is not compliant for different versions of windows (i.e. Windows 95/98) and that many times the GUI concept is overused such that command arguments cannot be passed to the program

Comparing GUI  Linux contains X-Windows with 2 interfaces – GNOME & KDE  Linux offers a choice of four desktops thus allowing the user to work in different windows on different desktop for convenience  FVWM2  : Feline Virtual Window Manager   FVWM95: FVWM with Windows 95 look and  feel   GNOME : GNU Network Object Manager  Environment   KDE       : K Desktop Environment 

Comparing GUI Cont.  Windows, on the other hand, is limited to the way the application windows are laid out on the screen  Windows GUI also has been known for its large memory requirements, where it usually uses a huge chunk of RAM for visual components

Linux advantages in Kernel and the OS environment  Linux requires 386 architecture to run. Thus, it is compatible with any improved architecture such as 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, etc  There are drivers available for much many types of hardware devices  Linux supports multiple copies of the Kernel on the system such that if an error is encountered and the Kernel becomes corrupted, a different copy of the Kernel can be used to boot up the system

Security  Linux seems to be more prepared for protecting itself because of the beginning developments of Linux, UNIX, and FreeBSD which were aimed at top notch security  Linux allows does not create registry keys in a way Windows does allowing a user to browse installed components registry keys, which contain important information  Linux is more virus proof since viruses – malicious programs either cannot be run automatically on the Linux machine, or simply are not capable of being executed on a 386 architecture  Windows is often known for a large amount of loop holes

Example of Windows Insecurity  In 2005, Sony released a new kind of Digital Rights Mgmt. (DRM) System for Windows machines.  When an ordinary user goes to play a Sony CD with the DRM scheme, software from the CD is installed into his Windows machine. This s/w has all kind of adverse effects on the machine & when the user tries to remove it, the act of removing may cause the computer to have a “Blue Screen of Death”.

Analysis of DRM  Ordinary users should never be allowed to install s/w that may harm the system. On UNIX machines this is obvious.  The fundamental flaw in Windows is the ability for applications to “hook” into system service calls.  Linux uses OS modules which have to be explicitly loaded by the modprobe program which can only be run by root.

Reliability  OS must not crash, even under extreme loads. OS should process requests even if the operating system or hardware fails  Windows seems to be less stable. Example  It is possible to get a process which cannot be killed without rebooting the system. Linux can find these zombies(using ls-l command) and get rid of them by killing their parent process without rebooting the system

MARKET SHARE  Acc. To a report “NORTH AMERICAN LINUX & WINDOWS TCO COMPARISON” Sever OS

15%

2% Windows Linux Others 73%

Desktop OS

12%

1% Windows Linux Others 87%

Conclusion

Advantages of LINUX Linux hardly ever crashes, mainly because the basic low-level operating program (called the kernel) that keeps the computer running is small. So, even when things go wrong with some higherlevel part of the operating system or with a program, the kernel keeps chugging away. Linux almost never has to be rebooted after installing a new program. This saves much valuable user time and aggravation over the life time of a machine.

Advantages of LINUX In most cases the Linux file system does not have to be de-fragmented regularly, such as Windows does, to keep it from slowing down. Linux allows up to 16 different views of the desktop. In other words, programs that are running can be associated with different views of the desktop; you will see only the program windows for the desktop view of current interest. It is easy to switch from one desktop view to another by buttons on the task bar. There are many free or inexpensive programs available for Linux. It cost less to install and operate.

Advantages of WINDOWS User-friendly Familiarity Integrity Easy to repair Easy to install Windows NT has a more finely grained permission system than LINUX  Better Guaranteed Support  Closed source OS  Windows VISTA more secure      

THE RESULT OF THE BATTLE  Linux is a very viable OS for your business as it is a stable OS & a real workhorse. – Linux is not a good server but good workstation. – Linux reduces costs of software licensing fees.

 Windows is a useful OS as – It is easy to operate – Saves training cost in case of an organization – Easy to repair & maintain

WHO IS THE WINNER?  Both of them have their own capabilities, advantages & disadvantages.  Linux is more stable, secure & Windows is easy to operate, user friendly, easy to maintain.  Both are equally excellent in their own proficiency.