Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Choosing Your Operating System - Windows Or Linux

Windows has been a choice for Operating Systems for a long time for most of the personal Computer Users. The main reason for this popularity is its user interface and the software compatibility. Before going into the details of the Windows Operating System, let us see some of the other operating systems available for use today. Apart from Windows the other most popular operating systems that are used widely are The Mac and Linux distributions. Macintosh, distributed by Apple is an OS used by the computers manufactured by Apple. This is not compatible with Other Hardware except the ones manufactured by Apple. The other most widely used distribution is the Linux distributions. Linux is an open source OS that is available for use under various distributions. Some of the most popular Linux distributions are Ubuntu, Red Hat Linux, OpenSUSE, etc. An advantage of Linux over other OS is that it is totally free and can be modified according to the user requirements by modifying the source code.

Now that we have a brief overview of the various operating Systems, let us see the use and advantages of these OS. The Windows OS has been a choice of many computer users from years. Though Windows has many versions released some of the most popular of them is Windows XP. XP is based on the Windows NT family of Operating Systems. With a more user friendly interface and higher software compatibility, it has been very much popular OS for a Long Time. There are many pros and cons of using Windows OS.

Some of the advantages of using Windows are very user friendly graphical interface, ease of installation and greater compatibility with most of the hardware. With much advanced software, there is no need for specifying command line for making changes to any settings. The Windows family operating systems can be used by anyone without any prior learning of the basics unlike some of the Linux distros. Another reason for the popularity of Windows is the games and software available for use. Many powerful softwares such as Photoshop, AutoCAD, Matlab are available for Windows which are extensively used by many people are there Windows OS.
After reading the above advantages of using Windows, let me tell you some of the disadvantages of the Windows OS. The most common and the most irritating problems with the Windows OS are virus and Trojan attacks. Almost each and every computer user faces this problem. Many antivirus programs are available today and are trying their best to offer maximum protection to PC Users. Apart from the above disadvantage Windows consumes a lot of resources of the PC in order to give a good performance.

Linux on the other hand is extremely fast and makes minimum use of the processors resources and gives maximum performance. This is the reason why Linux web hosting is a lot cheaper than Windows hosting. One of the biggest advantages of Using Linux distributions is that there is no need for any antivirus program to protect the PC from viruses, since viruses do not affect Linux file system.

Some of the Latest Linux distributions are OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Red Hat Linux. Out of the many distributions Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distro. The latest Version 9. 10 has many improvements and is worth a try by all the computer users. You can download the Disc Image free from the site or Order a CD if you have a slow internet connection.

Speaking of choosing between Windows and Linux, choose Windows if you have a good control and experience with it and have to work regularly on Windows based applications or go for Ubuntu.

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