Linux vs. Windows operating systems

The dispute over which operating system is the best is almost as old as computers them­selves. One thing which should be clear before we get started: there’s not just one answer to this question. Fur­ther­more, the old ‘Windows is for normal users, but pros use Linux’ saying is no longer quite as justified.

Each operating system has its ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages. Our aim in this article is to compare the most sig­ni­fic­ant aspects, so that each user can decide for them­selves whether or not to switch or stick.

Microsoft Windows has been top dog in the world of operating systems for decades, only really suffering losses in recent years. In the mobile sector, Android has gained in pop­ular­ity, and given the in­cred­ible speed at which the smart­phone market is de­vel­op­ing, Windows is no longer able to keep pace. But if you own a desktop PC or laptop, the chances are that you probably have Windows installed – unless of course you’re an Apple user. But that’s an entirely different, and even older, argument.

Windows has been around since 1985, and ever since its first release it has had a decisive influence on the functions and design of graphical operating systems. Indeed, one of the reasons for its pop­ular­ity is that most people are familiar with using it. And at the same time, it is the user-ori­ent­ated design of Windows which has made it so suc­cess­ful. However, Microsoft has also always been subject to a lot of criticism. Windows users all know, for example, that the system crashes from time to time, and the blue screen of death has become legendary.

On the other hand, the fact that Windows has been the market leader for so many years is what gives it one of its biggest ad­vant­ages as far as users are concerned: the range of software available for Windows is un­match­able. Prac­tic­ally every program released today is com­pat­ible with Windows, whereas with other operating systems, it’s not uncommon for there to be no com­pat­ible version, because the de­vel­op­ment effort involved would be too great for too small a target audience. In addition, there are also Microsoft’s own products, primarily the Office Suite, which very few users are willing to do without.

But market lead­er­ship also has its dis­ad­vant­ages: Computers running Windows are more fre­quently subject to cyber-attacks. On Windows systems, the favoured method of attack is the in­tro­duc­tion of viruses and malware. This is due to several factors, including the system’s wide­spread dis­tri­bu­tion, the type of users (in that the latter, unlike Linux users, tend to have little in-depth IT knowledge), and the com­plex­ity of the program structure, which makes it difficult to un­der­stand. Moreover, Microsoft is still somewhat reluctant about adopting the open-source mind-set, even though the very fact of making source code visible means it can be more thor­oughly checked for security flaws, because it is scru­tin­ised by more people.

To be precise, ‘Linux’ as such does not actually exist. Its his­tor­ic­al back­ground lies in the 1960s, with the de­vel­op­ment of Unix. However, Unix is a pro­pri­et­ary operating system, which is why computer scientist Linus Torvalds developed an open-source al­tern­at­ive in the early 1990s: the Linux kernel. During the course of the following decades, various dis­tri­bu­tions were then developed based on this, for example Ubuntu. The kernel itself is only really op­er­a­tion­al when combined with one of these dis­tri­bu­tions.

Given that the various Linux dis­tri­bu­tions are mainly the result of community-driven projects, com­mer­cial interests are rarely the focus of further de­vel­op­ment and dis­tri­bu­tion. This means that none of the dis­tri­bu­tions can even hope to equal the marketing power behind Microsoft. It also explains why many end users are only vaguely aware of Linux.

Today, most of the dis­tri­bu­tions have an un­der­stand­able graphical user interface (GUI). Non­ethe­less, newcomers to Linux are still faced with a number of hurdles. Whereas many Windows users never even come into contact with the system console, in many Linux dis­tri­bu­tions, some ap­plic­a­tions can only be installed via the terminal. Using console commands is therefore un­avoid­able in Linux.

Since none of the Linux dis­tri­bu­tions are as widely used as Windows, many software de­velopers do not consider it worth­while adapting their products for Linux. Con­sequently, in terms of com­pat­ible software, the choice is far more limited for Linux than for the Microsoft operating system. In the pro­fes­sion­al sector the dif­fer­ence is not quite so marked (for example, there are now Linux-com­pat­ible al­tern­at­ives to the Office ap­plic­a­tions), but in the en­ter­tain­ment sector it’s a very different story – computer games for Linux are few and far between for instance.

But while it may be lacking in qualities as far as the en­ter­tain­ment sector goes, Linux has gained fans because it is con­sidered to be par­tic­u­larly stable and adaptable. Whereas Windows attempts to hide as many system settings as possible, with Linux everything is ac­cess­ible. Users with the right knowledge have much more freedom.

To help you decide which operating system is best for you, we have compiled the following table to compare the key points.

In many ways, Linux beats its com­pet­it­or, Microsoft. The open-source solutions are known for their stability, security and speed. However, to benefit from these ad­vant­ages, you have to take a closer look at the operating system. Getting started is not par­tic­u­larly easy with any of the current Linux dis­tri­bu­tions. To get the system set up perfectly, you will need to acquire quite a bit of knowledge and really get to grips with its sub­tleties. Without this, you won’t have much luck with Linux.

In contrast, Windows is designed to operate out of the box, and it achieves this somewhat better than its repu­ta­tion might lead you to believe. In recent years, Microsoft has made sig­ni­fic­ant im­prove­ments to its operating system. Users looking for a func­tion­al system, which does not require extensive con­fig­ur­a­tion, are es­pe­cially likely to be satisfied with Windows. Its ease of use combined with extensive com­pat­ib­il­ity makes Windows a good choice for most users.

However, to get a better idea of which operating system would suit you best, why not simply give Linux a try? Most of the dis­tri­bu­tions are available online free of charge, and you can even run the second operating system on a virtual machine without making changes to your current system. Another option is to use a bootable USB drive and take advantage of the fact that many Linux dis­tri­bu­tions do not need to be installed on a hard drive and can run directly off a USB stick. This way you can try out several Linux dis­tri­bu­tions, which is worth doing, because they can vary quite sig­ni­fic­antly from one another.