The Lagoon TechMy little blog in Cyberspace.

This is a response (Part 5) to the web blog entitled “101 reasons why Linux is better than Windows”(http://cityblogger.com/archives/2007/01/24/101-reasons-why-linux-is-better-than-windows/)”. The author tries to discredit Windows by giving many reasons why Linux is “better”.

I will do my best to show how this is not the case. Operating systems are just tools. If you try to make one OS look “better” than another, you could possibly lead people into the wrong direction. Please note that the author has not written all 101 reasons on his blog. It appears he stopped writing it a while back. I will respond to everything he has currently written.

Direct quotes from the author are in red and my responses are in black.  Please note that I mean no disrespect to the author in anything I say.

Click here for Part 6!

Click here for Part 4!

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41) Linux gives you the Freedom: Linux follows the Free Software philosophy and hence gives its users the Freedom to modify, copy and share Linux.

This only is good news for people who can/need/want to “modify, copy, and share” the Linux kernel.

Average computer users for the most part will not care, and they probably would not even know how even if they did care.

42) One cick upgrade: Most distributions can easily be upgraded from one version to another in just a few clicks. And most importantly you don’t need to spend a fortune to buy the upgrade.

While upgrading to another Linux OS version (without doing a fresh re-install) seems like a nice feature, it has some risks such as:

1. Software may break after the upgrade due to OS level changes (e.g., incompatibility with the upgraded Linux OS).
2. Upgrade may not finish correctly and you are left with a broken OS.
3. Certain hardware may malfunction, due to changes from the upgrade.

Nothing may ever happen, but I recommend to always re-install an OS when upgrading, not just “upgrade directly to the new version available”. Remember to make a backup of your files first before upgrading!

43) No Hidden APIs. Windows many hidden or undocumented APIs which is used for unfair advantage to Microsoft. In Linux all APIs are completely open and documented. For example Microsoft specifies that everyone writing Internet application should use the Winsock API while Microsoft Internet Explorer doesn’t use the Winsock API, it uses an undocumented API allowing Internet Explorer to run faster than other browsers.

How does this make Linux “better” than Windows?  I doubt that all Linux APIs are completely documented (even if this were true, how do you know that the documents are up to date?).

Microsoft has Windows API documentation as well.

44) Faster patches: Linux is more secure because its patches in hours not days. Microsoft took 200 days to provide a critical patch.

First off, patches themselves are not a guarantee that a security hole has been successfully plugged up.

Secondly, patches *can* have the potential to open up *new* security holes.

Lastly, Microsoft has a Patch Tuesday, where they regularly role-out Windows patches every month. So if you are concerned about Microsoft not regularly rolling-out patches, your concern is no longer valid.

45) No Execute by default: By default if you download any file, it doesn’t have the execute permission, making your system more secure. The app cannot execute unless you go and change the permissions.

Using Windows’ ACL permissions, you can disallow yourself (and other users) from being allowed to execute files on certain parts of the system (e.g., your downloads folder).

Another option for controlling executable files on Windows is AppLocker, a feature that allows administrators to create a whitelist of approved applications. When properly configured, AppLocker can effectively block any file that is not on the whitelist from running on the system, providing an additional layer of security and control.

46) No write access to applications: By default users cannot install applications unless they change their permission or login as a supervisor. This ensures that any virus or malicious code cannot go and write to your application folder.

When creating a user in Windows, you can make the user a limited account (no Administrator privileges). This is the equivalent of a normal Linux user without root privileges.

“This ensures that any virus or malicious code cannot go and write to your application folder.”

This is a myth. While having a limited user helps in preventing malware from writing to unauthorized areas of the computer, this is no guarantee that malware can never break out of your user’s “area” and infect other parts of the system.

47) No open ports: By default most Linux distributions have all their incoming ports blocked, thereby making their Operating more secure from network attacks.

Since Windows Vista, Windows has had a firewall (running by default on a fresh install) for incoming as well as outgoing connections.

Windows (Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10) with its own firewall out-of-the-box is the same as the Linux distributions that have a firewall enabled out-of-the-box by default. 

48) Centralised repository of applications ensures that you are downloading your applications/patches only from a known source only. The repository is digitally signed which ensures that only the right application and code can be downloaded and installed on your computer.

Windows uses an SSL certificate to verify that it is in fact connecting to Microsoft for updates. Of course, there is always room for a man-in-the-middle attack, but that is not Windows’ fault.

Also, how do you know that these “trusted” update servers for Linux are not compromised? Just because there is no one intercepting the connection to the update server, does not mean that the update server itself is not compromised.

49) Centralised patching of all applications: Since your applications are installed from a centralised source, they are also patched from a single application, so each application doesn’t patch on its own. This ensures that your system is always up to date.

It’s incorrect to assume that all software on a Linux system is installed through a package manager. If a user has manually installed software, they will typically be responsible for updating those programs themselves, unless the software includes an automatic update feature.

50) Faster release cycle: Many Linux distributions have a fixed release cycle of 6 months which makes it easy for them to incorporate all the latest applications, bug fixes, improvement and support for newer hardware. Windows release cycle is not predictable. takes a few years and is often delayed.

A faster release cycle will create headaches for most people. A lot of users will not wish to update their computer every 6 months via a fresh reinstall. I know that in different Linux distributions you can auto-update to the next latest OS update, but I recommend against that.

51) Finding the difference between 2 text files is easy! using commands such as diff

That is not a good reason to choose Linux over Windows.

52) Your hard disk drive will have a longer life by not having the heads travel all over the disk doing virtual memory swaps because Linux uses far less RAM than Windows.

Both Windows and Linux will use your hard drive(s) as virtual memory (a.k.a. SWAP) if there is not enough memory on the host machine. However for me, on Linux, it has used the virtual memory (using the hard drive) when there was plenty of RAM still available.

I don’t know if this happened to anyone else, but I had noticed Linux (CentOS 7) was using the virtual memory partition (swap partition) when I still had plenty of RAM available in the virtual machine.

You can adjust the virtual memory on both Windows and Linux.

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Well this is the end of Part 5!  Click here for Part 6!

Click here for Part 4!

This is a response (Part 4) to the web blog entitled “101 reasons why Linux is better than Windows”(http://cityblogger.com/archives/2007/01/24/101-reasons-why-linux-is-better-than-windows/)”. The author tries to discredit Windows by giving many reasons why Linux is “better”.

I will do my best to show how this is not the case. Operating systems are just tools. If you try to make one OS look “better” than another, you could possibly lead people into the wrong direction. Please note that the author has not written all 101 reasons on his blog. It appears he stopped writing it a while back. I will respond to everything he has currently written.

Direct quotes from the author are in red and my responses are in black.  Please note that I mean no disrespect to the author in anything I say.

Click here for Part 5!

Click here for Part 3!

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31) Unlike Windows, Linux doesn’t use registry. Most of the configuration is stored in plain text files, which are easy to manage/backup and transfer between systems. Registry is a pain to manage, very complex and your system configuration is stored in a proprietary format which needs special tools to open. The biggest pain with registry is when it gets corrupted, this problem is eliminated in Linux because it doesn’t use registry.

The Windows registry is a convenient way to store application data. The Windows registry is also capable of ACL (Access Control List) permissions, which means that you can fine-grain the registry’s security if you wanted to (this can be great for large companies who want to lock-down their computer systems). However, many Windows applications store their configuration information within their own file formats, not the registry.

Also, the Windows registry has never become corrupt for me ever (I have used Windows for over 20 years).  I think there is this idea that the Windows registry can “just suddenly become corrupt”, and people just incorrectly assume this is an inherent problem with the Windows registry.

32) Linux is the most documented operating systems and most of these documentations are available for free. These documents are well written and explain computing concepts too.

Source to verify this? There are many websites for both Windows and Linux that contain information for these operating systems.

33) Linux has more wider support from online forums, articles and most importantly the community. There are Linux Users groups is almost every country, city and small towns as well.

Not really. The amount of online support for Windows and Linux are about the same.

34) Linux community is cool  they provide unconditional support and help you get started. Once you get involved into it, its like one huge family.

In my experience, a lot of Linux users feel elite and superior about using Linux (of course, not all Linux users are this way). There is nothing wrong with liking or disliking an OS, but please do not exaggerate “facts” about Linux just to get people to switch to Linux.

35) Linux runs on older hardware too, you don’t need to the latest and the greatest hardware. Even if you can’t run all the latest applications on your old hardware, using Linux, you can always put it to some good use.

True, Linux can work well on older computer systems. However I would argue that if somebody was going to do serious work with their computer system, they would already have a fast system, and not be using a 1999 desktop that may give out at any moment. 😊

36) No more hardware upgrades: Linux runs happily on older hardware and the hardware requirements don’t increase with every new version. If you have really old computers like Pentium I/III, you can still convert them to thin clients using LTSP and still use them. If you compare the hardware requirements between Ubuntu and Windows, you would notice that Ubuntu’s hardware requirements hasn’t changed for many versions.

[See answer I have above (#35).]

37) Completely localized: As there is a strong community and the source code is available, Linux is localized into almost every language in the world. You can further customize it for your needs, you can easily do that.

Windows is not just restricted to the English language. Windows supports more than one language.

38) Excellent package management: Linux has excellent package management tools which makes it easy to install and upgrade applications.

The software repositories will not necessarily have all the software that you need. Also, what if you installed something via RPM or DEB manually (compiled from source or not)? How would you get the package manager to automatically update the manually installed software?

39) Easy upgrade: Most Linux distributions makes it very easy to upgrade from one version to another.

While upgrading to another Linux OS version (without doing a fresh re-install) seems like a nice feature, it has some risks such as:

1. Software may break after the upgrade due to OS level changes (e.g., incompatibility with the upgraded Linux OS).
2. Upgrade may not finish correctly and you are left with a broken OS.
3. Certain hardware may malfunction, due to changes from the upgrade.

Nothing may ever happen, but I recommend to always re-install an OS when upgrading, not just “upgrade directly to the new version available”. Remember to make a backup of your files first before upgrading!

40) Excellent Development platform: If you are a developer, you will like Linux. Linux has all the development tools, libraries and compilers built in. If you are Java developer or a Web developer using PHP/Perl/Rub or doing C,C++ development, you will feel at home.

Technically Linux itself (which is just the kernel, not the whole OS) does not have all the developments libraries, compilers, etc. built-in. You (or the Linux OS installer that you use when your first installed the Linux distribution) installs these tools.

Also, all the programming languages you mentioned can also be used with Windows.

I have done a little web development on Linux but just did not like it. I preferred to use Windows. Windows seemed more “natural” to me for web development. Of course, that is just me. You may have a different opinion on the matter.

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Well this is the end of Part 4!  Click here for Part 5!

Click here for Part 3!

This is a response (Part 3) to the web blog entitled “101 reasons why Linux is better than Windows”(http://cityblogger.com/archives/2007/01/24/101-reasons-why-linux-is-better-than-windows/)”. The author tries to discredit Windows by giving many reasons why Linux is “better”.

I will do my best to show how this is not the case. Operating systems are just tools. If you try to make one OS look “better” than another, you could possibly lead people into the wrong direction. Please note that the author has not written all 101 reasons on his blog. It appears he stopped writing it a while back. I will respond to everything he has currently written.

Direct quotes from the author are in red and my responses are in black.  Please note that I mean no disrespect to the author in anything I say.

Click here for Part 4!

Click here for Part 2!

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21) You can also share the software with your friends and its completely legal to do so. Didn’t your teacher tell you in kindergarten that you should share things with your friends? Linux and Open Source actually encourage that while if you do that in Windows its not only considered illegal but they will call you a pirate!

With all due respect, how is this supposed to show Linux as being better than Windows?

22) Linux costs less, cause not only the OS is free but the applications are also free. Plus since Linux doesn’t have a virus problem, you also save on the recurring cost of Anti-Virus software. Note: You may still have to pay for support/training but the over all running cost is low.

Not all applications are going to be free for Linux (e.g. cPanel – a very popular web hosting control panel software).

It’s a common misconception that Linux is completely immune to malware and viruses. In reality, Linux systems can still be vulnerable to malware, and users should take necessary precautions to protect their systems, just like with any other operating system.

23) Both Linux and Windows has shell environment Windows (know as command prompt). The shell environments in Linux (such as bash) are more powerful and you can write entire programs using the scripting language. This is extremely useful to automate repetitive tasks such as backup.

Windows has PowerShell, which is a very powerful command line interface.

Quoting Wikipedia: “Windows PowerShell is a task automation and configuration management framework from Microsoft, consisting of a command-line shell and associated scripting language built on the .NET Framework. PowerShell provides full access to COM and WMI, enabling administrators to perform administrative tasks on both local and remote Windows systems as well as WS-Management and CIM enabling management of remote Linux systems and network devices.”   — Source (as of 08-30-2014): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_PowerShell

24) Linux can run from a CD or can be installed on the hard drive. Windows by default doesn’t have any such option. Using live CDs such as Ubuntu/Knoppix, users can try out Linux by booting from the CD, without the need to install the operating system.

While not exactly a “Live CD”, Microsoft Windows 8 / 8.1 (Enterprise Edition only) and Windows 10 has a feature called Windows to Go. This allows you to run Windows off of a mass storage device, such as a USB flash drive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_To_Go

25) Linux is also extremely portable, it can also run off usb pen drives/portable hardrives/thumb drives and more.

[See the answer above (#24).]

26) Did you know that in Windows, there is built in back-door entry so US government can see you data as and when they like? Yes the US NSA has the key build into every copy of Windows. In Linux there is no such thing possible as the operating system is open source and can easily be detected and disabled. Read how this was done.

There is no convicting proof of this. Until good proof surfaces, this is just speculation. Also, it is interesting that Linux has a kernel add-on called SELinux. SELinux was originally written by the NSA themselves. Even my Android phone has SELinux in a “enforcing” state.

Yes, SELinux is open source, but that does not automatically make it squeaky clean of back-doors. I suspect most people who use SELinux have never even looked at its source code. They just assume that it is OK just because it is “open source”. Being open source does not automatically make a project “secure” and “reliable”.

Linux users are quick to bash Windows, without even thinking about their own operating system having possible back-doors inserted inside them.

Not to mention a lot of Linux users I have come across (not all, of course) act like they are experts on both Windows and Linux. However, from the comments they make, it is obvious that is not the case.

Until a Linux user can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Windows is “filled with back-doors”, they should just (respectfully) stop talking about Windows’ “inherent insecurity”.  I am not saying that there is not any back-doors in Windows, but just saying there is does not automatically make it so.  I think you get what I am saying to you.

27) Linux has built in virtualization(XEN/KVM/VirtualBox/etc.) so you can run multiple copies of Linux or Windows simultaneously.

Microsoft Windows has a built-in visualization hypervisor called Hyper-V.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-V

28) The Linux kernel comes shipped with large number of hardware drivers. 3000 Printers, 1000 Digital Cameras and 200 webcams were supported by Ubuntu. On Windows, a lot of hardware doesn’t work until you install the driver, this problem is worse with Vista as Microsoft doesn’t allow drivers to be installed which are not supported/certified by Microsoft. On Linux, a huge percentage of today’s common hardware works perfectly out-of-the-box.

I assume you mean the 64-bit version of Windows Vista. No hardware will work without drivers. You can install unsigned drivers in Windows Vista. Just follow these instructions from Microsoft: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff547565(v=vs.85).aspx

All my current desktop hardware works out of the box on Windows 10.

I had one wireless card that would absolutely not work with Linux out of the box, and printers usually do not work for me out-of-the-box on Linux either. Also, I would recommend using the manufacturer’s Linux drivers (if they have any for your device) in place of the drivers that came with the Linux distribution and/or updates.

29) Vendor independence: With proprietary operating system, you are dependent on the vendor who developed the operating system. With Linux you have a choice of vendors, so even if the vendor fails to give you support, you can always move to another vendor. Choice of vendors also means more competition, which means better value for money for the customer.

Unless you know how to modify Linux yourself (most average computer users will not know how), you (and they) are at the mercy of the “Linux vendors” just as much as people and companies are with Microsoft and even Apple.

Linux is only ‘freedom’ to people who know how to modify it and use it (e.g., computer programmers). If you are a casual computer user, Linux would not really give you any more freedom than Windows would.

30) It won’t die or get killed like what happened with other fantastic but proprietary operating system such as OS/2, BeOS. Reason being, its open source and someone will maintain it and today there are many big companies behind and have bet huge money on Linux.

The idea that Linux will never die is just an assumption (same goes for Windows). However, if it were not for people (and businesses) with lots of money, Linux would not be where it is today. It takes money and time (“time is money”) to develop Linux. Linux is not truly 100% free.

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Well this is the end of Part 3!  Click here for Part 4!

Click here for Part 2!

This is a response (Part 2) to the web blog entitled “101 reasons why Linux is better than Windows”(http://cityblogger.com/archives/2007/01/24/101-reasons-why-linux-is-better-than-windows/)”. The author tries to discredit Windows by giving many reasons why Linux is “better”.

I will do my best to show how this is not the case. Operating systems are just tools. If you try to make one OS look “better” than another, you could possibly lead people into the wrong direction. Please note that the author has not written all 101 reasons on his blog. It appears he stopped writing it a while back. I will respond to everything he has currently written.

Direct quotes from the author are in red and my responses are in black.  Please note that I mean no disrespect to the author in anything I say.

Click here for Part 1!

Click here for Part 3!

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11) Linux also doesn’t require rebooting when you install a new application.

Around 99% of all the Windows software I use, I can install without having to reboot Windows. In other words, Windows and Linux are about the same in this area.

12) Linux doesn’t require frequent rebooting. Linux runs extremely stable, even if an application crashes, there is no need to reboot the whole system, just restart that application or service.

The same applies to a correctly setup Windows install.

13) Most importantly Linux doesn’t reboot on its own! I have had a situation where Windows updated the system and then rebooted on its own, without my knowledge. And worst, this was when I was updating my digital camera firmware.

Then just turn off your automatic Windows updates. This is not a problem with Windows. This is a problem with the way the user has configured Windows.

14) No licensing headaches: Yes Linux is free and you don’t know need to bother about the complexing licensing of per user/per PC/per server/etc. Note: Some Linux distributions charge a yearly subscription to get the updates and patches, however this is still more simpler than the proprietary world.

A person who goes to the store and buys a laptop (or desktop) will already have Windows preinstalled and activated.

Companies who use Windows (desktop and server editions) should already have people who are familiar with licensing Windows and act accordingly to the company’s needs.

15) Linux can read over a 100 different types of file systems. Windows is limited to its own two file systems. Well most general users may not care about this but its extremely useful is you are working in a mixed environment or you need to extract some data from a hard drive formatted on another computer.

That statement is incorrect. Windows is capable of reading from various file systems, not just its native ones. (Look here: Ext2Fsd  and here:  http://www.paragon-software.com/home/extfs-windows/)

You just need a driver to allow you to read another file-system on Windows. Same applies to Linux. Windows is not limited to just two file-systems.

16) You have access to the source code and the right to modify or fix things if you are a programmer. Many end users think this is not necessary but they will realize how important this is when their application vendor decides to discontinue support on a older version to promote a newer one.

Most average computer users will not know how (nor care) to modify source code. Linux is only ‘freedom’ to people who know how to modify it and use it (e.g., computer programmers). If you are a casual computer user, Linux would not really give you any more freedom than Windows would.

17) Linux can install in logical partition or a second (slave hard drive as well)Windows can only be installed in a primary partition. Read this on some suggestions for partitioning.

You can install Windows on a separate partition from the “primary” one.

18) Linux is scalable right from the PDA/Cellphones to super computers.

Windows works on cell phones (called: Windows Phone). Windows is used in supercomputers, but it has a very small usage share. Linux is chosen over Windows for supercomputers due to being free and due to companies being able to modify its source code.

19) Linux is running mission critical applications including powering an Aircraft.

So does Windows. There are hospitals that use Windows (Look here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windows-embedded/archive/2013/04/30/windows-embedded-8-is-great-for-healthcare.aspx)

20) Linux has less bugs than commercial software, this is one of the main reasons for its stability. Read more.

How do you know? You didn’t give any proof for your claim.

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Well this is the end of Part 2!  Click here for Part 3!

Click here for Part 1!