linux/windows: the fundamental difference?

[Chris1274]

This isn't meant to start a flame war about which one is better ...

Having switched over to Ubuntu about a month ago, if someone were to ask me, "So what's the difference between Linux and Windows?" I could easily enough point to this or that feature, but I'd like to be able to say what the essential difference is between them as operating systems. Not so much what you can do with them but with what they are. I'm interested in the Socratic question, "What makes Linux to be Linux, and how is that different from what makes Windows to be Windows?" Is it the kernel architecture? Is it just that one is open-source while the other is closed-source?

So if you were asked to summarize, in a few sentences, the essence of a Linux OS and contrast it with the Windows OS, how would you do it?

[oldsoundguy]

File system is the #1 difference. (the way files are stored and handled .. no fragmentation of files!)

Means of installing applications/programs.
(and the fact that installs are stand alone .. no REGISTRY files, thus no REGISTRY errors and no need to reboot every time a program is installed.)

Only have items installed that are needed for operation .. everything else can be changed.

Security

User enabled customization.

Down time for cleaning and maintenance.

Just a few of MANY differences.

(OH, and then there is the COMMUNITY! Something Windows will NEVER have!)

[bowens44]

For me:

Windows: Commercial(expensive)/Closed Source
vs
Linux: Free/Open source

[Bachstelze]

The difference is that Linux is Linux and Windows is Windows. It's like asking what's the difference between red and blue.

[M93]

the difference is that
windows have to be bought, u have to buy software(office, antivirus..etc), have nothing for support but support pages and adding to all this its not secure and can be hacked in minutes

linux is free, u can have as much software and programes as ur hdd can handle as its for free and can be easily removed with no extra files being stored for no reason(like in windows!) and most important thing after its UNIX coded, it has a Community and u get support for ppl who either had ur problem before and got them solved or from the ppl who solved the same problem before

[akoskm]

Here is a really good article (imho) about Linux and about those differences:http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm.

[blur xc]

I'm sorry, and I mean no offence, but the answers so far, imho, are pretty crappy...

I read some information before, but I can't recall exactly where I saw it...but here's what I remember:

#1- *nix (unix like operating systems) were designed from the ground up, way back 40 years ago, when MS wasn't even a twinkle in Bill Gate's eye (maybe, maybe not), as a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system. Windows was not. From what I read, MS version of multi user is a duct tape add-on compared to the way *unix os's do it... dunno if that's true.

#2- I also read somwhere (can't find it right now) that the way Linux handles software and drivers is better than windows. something to do with layers or some crap like that, that prevents a software problem from bringing down the whole system. I know Windows was really bad about that, years ago. When something crashed, I almost always had to reboot to make it work good again, but in recent years I haven't had that problem as much.

#3- BIG plus- software and system updates are handled in a FAR superior manner. Windows ALWAYS needs you to reboot to do OS updates. So irritating. And they are so slow. My 9yr old dual boots his laptop, and is already always complaining about vista doing updates, vista rebooting on him when he walked away, etc... it's funny. The repository system of getting software and managing updates is way better than going online, and having every installed program have to do its own monitoring for updates. There are a few exceptions in Linux, with some commercial software (Bibble, for one, ad VBox - if you don't have their ppa added to your software sources), but for the most part it's pretty fantastic.


BM

[aytech]

1 BIG difference: price
Linux is believed to be more difficuilt, what i believe is that if we were to grow up with Lunix, we'd then say that windows is difficuilt. Ok, in win you use command line much less, probly M$ programmers spent more time with GUIs rather then the OS itself =D>

Both OS serve the same purpose, one just has to decide: do a little thinking and save some cash or pay half of your month salary for the ******* and let M$ do the thinking for you (sadly, payments just start there)

[Bachstelze]

I'm sorry, and I mean no offence, but the answers so far, imho, are pretty crappy...

[bunburya]

The difference is that Linux is Linux and Windows is Windows. It's like asking what's the difference between red and blue.

I disagree. They are both operating systems, so for the end user they are both trying to fulfill the same role (or similar roles). It's silly to say the two can't be compared or contrasted, they're in competition with one another, they must be (and very often are) compared and contrasted.