Neon-komputadór

Linux and MS-Windows

Whilst various versions of Microsoft Windows are used on some 90% of personal computers and around 40% of server systems, it is not the only family of operating systems on the market. In 1971, the U.S. company AT&T released an operating system called UNIX which was primarily used as a multi-tasking and multi-user operating system on minicomputers and mainframes. It proved to be very popular and spread quickly through the corporate world. In the late 1970s, the Berkeley campus of the University of California released a version of UNIX called BSD, which they sold at much reduced prices to education institutions. Thus, Berkeley UNIX became the operating system of choice throughout higher education institutions. In the 1980s other companies started to get on the act. For example, SCO developed a type of UNIX for IBM personal computers called XENIX. Hewlett Packard developed HP-UX and so forth.

In 1991 however, a Finnish student, Linus Torvalds, inspired by Minix, a small UNIX system written by Andy Tanenbaum, started writing a new operating system. In 1994, the first stable release was made under the name 'Linux'. With contributions coming in from programmers all over the world, Linux has developed into a complete operating system with significant applications support. It is multi-user and multitasking with multiprocessor and multithreading capabilities. It supports a variety of files systems, including MS-DOS/Windows95 FAT. Whilst Linux only represents a mere 2% of the personal computer market (it is installed on about 30% of servers and various versions of UNIX make up another 15%) its future looks quite bright. Recently, Linux was adopted by the People's Republic of China as the all-of-government operating system.

The key difference between Linux and MS-Windows are as follows:

1) Linux is a freely distributable operating system. This means that the distributor determines what price, if any, they are going to charge for it and what services (administrative, technical, documentation and otherwise) they will offer with that distribution. In practice this usually means that Linux can be obtained and upgraded at no cost.

2) Linux is open source operating system. This means that the source code of programs written for Linux is available to be reviewed, tested and improved by any other interested programmer. In practice this usually means that Linux is more secure and stable that MS-Windows where one is reliant on Microsoft to provide technical information and to report and repair errors. Linux servers can run for years without crashing and there are very few Linux viruses.

3) Linux is adaptable. Apart from the already mentioned features, Linux communicates using the networking protocols of Unix, Microsoft Windows 95/NT, IBM OS/2, Netware, and Macintosh systems and can also read and write disks and partitions from these and other operating systems. Linux operates on a variety of hardware including PCs, Alpha, PowerPC, Motorola 680x0 systems, and SPARC systems.

Now, one may be forgiven for thinking "Well, if all this is true" (which it is), "then why is MS-Windows so popular?" Part of the reason of course is that Linux is a more recent product and Microsoft Windows has an enormous already existing support base. However, there are distinct disadvantages peculiar to Linux relative to MS-Windows.

1) Linux is much newer does not have as many device drivers or commercial applications written for it as MS-Windows. In most distributions of the operating system a fairly experienced computer user is required to perform the installation, which may require some technical knowledge or at the very least, familiarity with using a command-line interface. And worst for the end user, its help files are usually incomplete.

2) Because Linux is new, there are associated costs with any migration to a new operating system. Planning, documentation and retraining is required. It must be pointed out however, that with windows GUI for the operating system and applications, the learning curve for users is often a lot less than expected. However, it does require competent, trained system administrators.

3) Because Linux is open-source with multiple vendors, the sheer range of software can be bewildering. Also, although Linux does have an increasing range of applications for office tasks the fact that these are produced by different vendors, not all of which are freely available or open source (as an integrated suite of programs, OpenOffice is a notable exception). Also, the range of products means that different commands have to learnt for each package. Finally, not all the packages necessarily integrate well with each other. There are literally dozens of different distributions of Linux with each distribution having particular strengths for particular networks.