Linux Vs Windows

Linux vs Windows has been a subject of debate since the inception of computers.Windows has a much larger user base. It is so popular, and has been for so many years, because of Microsoft's business practices, which required PC vendors to ship the Windows operating system with every PC they sold. That practice was later found to be illegal, but the resultant user base remains. But this is changing--some vendors offer systems pre-loaded with GNU/Linux. Dell--the world's largest PC vendor--is now shipping some of its products with Ubuntu GNU/Linux. There are many small vendors who offer systems pre-loaded GNU/Linux. And many of the new sub notebook machines offer GNU/Linux; the ASUS Eee PC, the first of this new breed, was initially only available with a modified Xandros GNU/Linux.

1.See and Feel
The home screen of windows and linux is completely different.

2. Bundled software 
Windows 7 by default has very minimal software set, the basic features that we need – word processor, spread sheet and a presentation software are not present. You’ll have to purchase and install the MS Office suite separately, this is something that should be bundled with the operating system.

3.Drivers
 One of the biggest advantages of Linux is its built-in driver set, or rather the ability of automatically downloading and installing them. This includes the drivers for your webcam, Wi-Fi, Ethernet Card, even your printer or scanner! We all know drivers is a big pain that comes when completing a fresh install of Windows 7.

4.Media
Windows comes with Windows media player, which is pretty much useless without codecs, as majority of the videos/movies that we watch require codecs like Xvid. So there is a need to download a codec pack before Windows media player becomes fully functional.

5.Minimum Requirements -
Windows 7 requires a minimum of 1000 Mhz processor with 1GB of RAM, while Ubuntu requires a minimum of 700 Mhz processor with 384MB RAM. While these are the official requirements, in practice, the requirements are considerably higher. From my experience, If you install both the operating systems on identical hardware, Ubuntu’s performance is significantly higher than that of Windows 7.

6.Security
Access Privileges -   Linux by default does not run as a root (the Windows ‘administrator’ equivalent)
This ensures that any automated program or script cannot make changes to the system without explicit privileges from the user. Although Windows has implemented a similar mechanism called ‘User Account Control or UAC’, Which does provide good protection although not as robust as Linux does.

Viruses - Viruses and other malware continue to be a constant headache for windows users. Combating viruses is not only time consuming, but also expensive when we talk about using Windows in a large scale production environment. Moreover, there is always a need to purchase expensive antivirus software with yearly subscriptions, punching additional holes in your pocket.

7.Gaming
Gaming support is another aspect of an operating system. While Linux does have many games, it certainly cannot match Windows 7 in this area. Most of the high-end games have been built for the Windows platform, that make extensive use of Microsoft DirectX.
So its not hard to say that Windows 7 should be definitely your choice if you are a gamer.

8.Ease of use 
This is the part that worries most users who are used to the Windows 7 User interface.
In case you are not pleased with the Ubuntu user interface, there is another distribution of Ubuntu called Kubuntu, which has a marvelous user interface,its very easy to use and is similar to the look and feel of Windows 7 in many aspects.