The Lagoon TechMy little blog in Cyberspace.

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). A lot of Windows applications, however, store their configuration information (settings for a video game, for example) 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 an OS that has no real support outside of a few companies and community boards.

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 used by thousands of people everyday)

Linux can get malware if you are not careful. For some reason, people seem to think Linux is immune to viruses. This can not be further from the truth.

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. SE-Linux was originally written by the NSA themselves. Even my Android phone has SE-Linux in a “enforcing” state.

Yes, SE-Linux is open source, but that does not automatically make it squeaky clean of back-doors. I suspect most people who use SE-Linux 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. On Windows 10, you can install Hyper-V by going to Control Panel  ==>  Programs and Features  ==>  then click on, Turn Windows features on or off  ==>  Click on the entry entitled “Hyper-V”  ==>  Click OK

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 pre-installed 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.

Wow! This is wrong on so many levels. Windows can read from other file-systems. (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!

This is a response (Part 1) 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 2!

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1) It works  Its not a vaporware and is available today.

Windows is also not vaporware and is most certainly available today as well.

2) Linux doesn’t have the virus problems: Even Microsoft’s CEO Steve Balmer couldn’t clean Windows Viruses. Still not convinced? Read more on Why Linux isn’t affected by Viruses. Its not that there aren’t any viruses for Linux but Linux is more secure and less virus prone.

Actually Linux does have malware. However it is rare to actually get malware on Linux, but the same goes for a properly setup Windows computer too. Just because someone uses Windows does not mean that they will catch malware. If the user is using common sense, in my opinion, 97%+ of all malware will never even touch a Windows machine.

It is extremely rare to catch a virus by just being connected to the Internet (that goes for both Windows and Linux).

3) No Spyware: Not just spyware but none of those funny applications that keep doing things in the background.

This is definitely false. Look here: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/ubuntu-spyware-what-to-do

Even Ubuntu Linux has been accused of having surveillance code in the OS.

4) Linux Doesn’t need defragging: The Linux file systems work very efficiently such that it arranges data in a way that it doesn’t require defragging. to know more, read earlier post.

False. No file system can ever have no fragmentation.

When you delete files (on any file-system, NTFS, ext4, ext3, UFS, FAT32, FAT, ZFS, etc.), you leave gaps in the file-system. These gaps will be filled with other files, but you will also have files before and after the new file. So when the computer goes to access the data, it has to sift though all of the data to find the bits and pieces it needs to complete the task.

5) Linux doesn’t crash without any apparent reasons. In Linux the core operating system (kernel) is separate from the GUl (X-Window) from the applications (OpenOffice.org, etc). So even if the application crashes, the core operating system is not affected. In Windows (Microsoft prefers to call this tight integration) if the Browser crashes, it can take down the entire operating system.

Both the Windows kernel and the Linux kernel are technically separate from the main processes that run (e.g. explorer.exe (on Windows) or the X11 windows system on a Linux distribution).

6) Linux doesn’t crash if you accidentally pulled out your USB key/pen drive. Try this a 100 times if you don’t believe me  but don’t blame me if your pen drive data gets corrupt.

Who pulls in and out their USB stick 100 times anyway? Also, I doubt that will cause Windows to crash.

7) Linux doesn’t require frequent re-installation: In Windows if the OS crashes, there is no easy way to recover this. Many IT support staff don’t know what to do and all they can do is re-install Windows. Which means that users applications and preferences are lost, and needs to be installed again. I haven’t seen anyone using Linux, requiring to re-install unless there is a hard drive failure. Most things in Linux can be fixed without requiring re-installation.

A Windows crash does not mean that someone cannot recover from it. How do you know that it will not be easy to recover a crashed Windows installation?

Just because you have not heard of any Linux users re-installing the Linux OS, does not mean that none have. Ask on a major Linux forum and see what people say.

8) You can keep your operating system from your data, its designed to actually do that very easily. The benefit of this is all the users preferences can be preserved even if the OS needs to be re-installed. This can be handled by creating a separate partition for the home directory, read more.

No one can 100% keep the OS from their data (goes for Windows and Linux). However, you can come very close to accomplishing this on Windows and Linux.

On Windows 7, you can move user profiles (their account data) to another drive (Look here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/124198-user-profiles-create-move-during-windows-7-installation.html).

9) Linux also doesn’t require rebooting when a new hardware device is added configured.

Unless you have a computer that supports hot-swapable hardware, you would have to shut down your computer to add the new hardware anyway. Configuring new devices on Windows usually do not require restarts anymore.

10) Linux doesn’t require rebooting when you change any setting or re-configure your Network.

The only times I can recall having to reboot Windows from making a network change is when either I  1) changed the work-group the computer is in   and   2) When I add a static IPv6 address to a network device. Not really a big deal.

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Well this is the end of Part 1!  Click here for Part 2!