Linux vs. Windows

Both Windows and Linux are Operating systems with their own advantages and differ in functionalities and user friendliness.

Parameters	Linux	Windows
What is it?	Open Source software development and Free Operating System (OS).	Developed by Microsoft and is the most famous OS.
Cost	Can be freely distributed. There are priced versions also, but they are normally cheaper than Windows.	For desktop or home use, Windows can be expensive.
Development and Distribution	Open Source development and distributed by various vendors.	Developed and distributed by Microsoft.
GUI	Linux typically provides two GUIs, KDE and Gnome. But there are other alternatives such as LXDE, Xfce, Unity, Mate, twm, ect.	The Windows GUI is an integral component of the OS and is not replaceable. This can be a con when it comes to Windows 8's Metro.
File system support	Ext2, Ext3, Ext4, Jfs, ReiserFS, Xfs, Btrfs, FAT, FAT32, NTFS	FAT, FAT32, NTFS, exFAT
Text mode interface	BASH (Bourne Again SHell) is the Linux default shell. It can support multiple command interpreters.	Windows uses a command shell and each version of Windows has a single command interpreter with dos-like commands, recently there is the addition of the optional PowerShell that uses more Unix-like commands.
Security	Linux has had about 60-100 viruses listed till date.	According to “Analysis of the Impact of Open Source Software” there have been more than 60,000 viruses in Windows.
Examples	Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat, Debian, Archlinux, Android etc.	Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP
User experience	Although there are many GUI applications, most of the work is done through Terminal (a console window), and if a problem arrises GUI is rarely usable to fix them.	Everything can be controlled through GUI and incompatibility problems are rare.
Company / developer	Linus Torvalds	Microsoft
License	GNU/Free	Proprietary
Default user interface	Gnome or KDE (Depends on distro)	Graphical (Windows Aero)
Preceded by	Basic Terminal (CLI)	MS-DOS
Source model	Open Source	Closed / Shared source

Full access vs. no access

Having access to the source code is probably the single most significant difference between Linux and Windows. The fact that Linux belongs to the GNU Public License ensures that users (of all sorts) can access (and alter) the code to the very kernel that serves as the foundation of the Linux operating system. You want to peer at the Windows code? Good luck. Unless you are a member of a very select (and elite, to many) group, you will never lay eyes on code making up the Windows operating system.

Licensing freedom vs. licensing restrictions

With a Linux GPL-licensed operating system, you are free to modify that software and use and even republish or sell it (so long as you make the code available). Also, with the GPL, you can download a single copy of a Linux distribution (or application) and install it on as many machines as you like. With the Microsoft license, you can do none of the above. You are bound to the number of licenses you purchase, so if you purchase 10 licenses, you can legally install that operating system (or application) on only 10 machines.

Online peer support vs. paid help-desk support

This is one issue where most companies turn their backs on Linux. But it's really not necessary. With Linux, you have the support of a huge community via forums, online search, and plenty of dedicated Web sites. And of course, if you feel the need, you can purchase support contracts from some of the bigger Linux companies (Red Hat and Novell for instance). However, when you use the peer support inherent in Linux, you do fall prey to time. You could have an issue with something, send out e-mail to a mailing list or post on a forum, and within 10 minutes be flooded with suggestions. Or these suggestions could take hours of days to come in. Still, generally speaking, most problems with Linux have been encountered and documented. So chances are good you'll find your solution fairly quickly.

On the other side of the coin is support for Windows. There are just as many help sites/lists/forums for Windows as there are for Linux. And you can purchase support from Microsoft itself. Most corporate higher-ups easily fall victim to the safety net that having a support contract brings. But most higher-ups haven't had to depend up on said support contract. 

Full vs. partial hardware support

One issue that is slowly becoming nonexistent is hardware support. Years ago, if you wanted to install Linux on a machine you had to make sure you hand-picked each piece of hardware or your installation would not work 100 percent. You can grab a PC (or laptop) and most likely get one or more Linux distributions to install and work nearly 100 percent. But there are still some exceptions. For instance, hibernate/suspend remains a problem with many laptops, although it has come a long way.

With Windows, you know that most every piece of hardware will work with the operating system. Of course, there are times (and I have experienced this over and over) when you will wind up spending much of the day searching for the correct drivers for that piece of hardware you no longer have the install disk for. But you can go out and buy that 10-cent Ethernet card and know it'll work on your machine. You also can rest assured that when you purchase that insanely powerful graphics card, you will probably be able to take full advantage of its power.

Command line vs. no command line

No matter how far the Linux operating system has come and how amazing the desktop environment becomes, the command line will always be an invaluable tool for administration purposes. Nothing will ever replace my favorite text-based editor, ssh, and any given command-line tool. You could use a Linux machine for years and never touch the command line. Same with Windows. You can still use the command line with Windows, but not nearly to the extent as with Linux. And Microsoft tends to obfuscate the command prompt from users. Without going to Run and entering cmd (or command, or whichever it is these days), the user won't even know the command-line tool exists. And if a user does get the Windows command line up and running.

Centralized vs. noncentralized application installation

With Linux you have (with nearly every distribution) a centralized location where you can search for, add, or remove software. With Synaptic, you can open up one tool, search for an application (or group of applications), and install that application without having to do any Web searching (or purchasing).

Windows has nothing like this. With Windows, you must know where to find the software you want to install, download the software (or put the CD into your machine), and run setup.exe or install.exe with a simple double-click. For many years, it was thought that installing applications on Windows was far easier than on Linux. And for many years, that thought was right on target. Not so much now. Installation under Linux is simple, painless, and centralized.

Multilayered run levels vs. a single-layered run level

Linux' inherent ability to stop at different run levels. With this, you can work from either the command line (run level 3) or the GUI (run level 5). This can really save your socks when X Windows is fubared and you need to figure out the problem. You can do this by booting into run level 3, logging in as root, and finding/fixing the problem.

With Windows, you're lucky to get to a command line via safe mode -- and then you may or may not have the tools you need to fix the problem. In Linux, even in run level 3, you can still get and install a tool to help you out (hello apt-get install APPLICATION via the command line). Having different run levels is helpful in another way. Say the machine in question is a Web or mail server. You want to give it all the memory you have, so you don't want the machine to boot into run level 5. However, there are times when you do want the GUI for administrative purposes (even though you can fully administer a Linux server from the command line). Because you can run the startx command from the command line at run level 3, you can still start up X Windows and have your GUI as well. With Windows, you are stuck at the Graphical run level unless you hit a serious problem.

Find out more...
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-fundamental-differences-between-linux-and-windows/#.
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Linux_vs_Windows#dfnad728