Key differences between Windows, Linux and Mac?

[Fat_Connor]

Can anybody help me and tell me the key differences between these three operating systems

[ProjectBox153]

Linux is a broad term for different distributions of a free and open source OS. MacOS (or OS X) is for use on Macintosh computers, and Windows is the most common OS for, well, anything that most people do. What are you asking specifically?

[minibois]

The program support, if it is open source or not, best yes cases, supported hardware (particularly for Mac OS) and of course price.

 

These differences are in some areas way to big to just describe, it will mostly depend on what you want to install it on and what you are gonna do with it.

[Fat_Connor]

I've been asked what the 3 key differences of them are and i have no clue where to start or how to structure it. I know about the operating systems and some minor differences but i'd  like a more broad analysis.

Thankyou 

[kelvinhall05]

Before anyone gets triggered or rushes to correct me, this is MY OPINION.

 

Linux: For older systems or just weaker ones, and for people who don't like Windows or don't want to spend money.

 

Windows: Good for everything, but it's the best if you just want to game (driver support and game support).

 

OS X: Good for working, battery life, and integration within the Apple ecosystem.

[DayumFearlessMint]

Linux : For security and servers.

Windows : Gaming and compality,

MAC : For music (for the laptops) And writing.

 

[WereCatf]

I use both Windows and Linux all the time, and yet, I have a hard time trying to distill the differences to just a bullet-list of "key differences." There are so, so many really major differences that such distillations don't really make much sense and that's before we even consider the fact that "Linux" in and of itself is a very broad concept and can literally mean anything from extremely compact, single-purpose embedded designs to humongously parallelized supercomputer-OSes.

 

Hmmmm. From a very, very general point of view, I'd give Linux the following:

• Totally customizable, all the way from the kernel itself, the whole boot-process and up to complete desktop-environments
• Excellent for cases where you need rock-solid long-term stability and remote-manageability, like e.g. servers and server-farms
• Excellent choice for embedded systems and hardware-development
• Extreme scalability, from the lowest-end, 100MHz MIPS-devices to 1000+ core, multi-gigahertz monsters and across a wide variety of architectures
• Not nearly as smooth sailing as a desktop as e.g. Windows, and even less suitable for gaming in general

For Windows, I'd say the following:

• The go-to gaming-OS
• Almost all PC-hardware have drivers for Windows (the supported Windows-version depends on the release-date of the hardware, though)
• Much better for desktop-use in general than Linux
• Most commercial GUI-software is written for Windows (related to the above point)

I don't use OSX so I have nothing to say there.

[pipnina]

At their core, the main difference between a Linux, MacOS and Windows machine is the kernel in use, Windows uses the NT kernel (created and maintained by microsoft), MacOS uses a modified version of the BSD kernel (which apple calls "Darwin"), and all Linux OSs must by definition run on the Linux kernel.

 

A step higher, and we find that the userland of the three types of system vary dramatically. As a general rule, Linux-based desktop operating systems will use the GNU coreutils as the basis for user interaction, with graphical forms of interaction optionally (or by default, depending on the distribution) At this stage, Linux-based systems are the most modular and flexible, which is part of why they have such success in the server and embedded market.

 

MacOS comes pre-installed with the GNU coreutils, although very outdated versions (i.e. 2009) due to Apple's policy on GPLv3 licensed software. MacOS also loosely follows the same file structure as most Linux-based machines as they share a common ancestry with UNIX, although MacOS's file structure has been massively modified. AFAIK all components of MacOSs GUI are tied to the other parts of the system.

 

Windows used to be a program that ran on top of DOS, and as such early versions of Windows effectively just executed DOS commands through a GUI, in more "modern" (AFAIK 95/98 up) Windows systems the command prompt is where all legacy DOS functionality lies, and it is (AFAIK) the only of the major desktop OSs to not run BASH natively (WSL doesn't count). Windows can be modified, but in a much more limited fashion. Windows also runs drivers in userland, as opposed to Linux which runs drivers in kernel space (which is better is up for debate).

 

<<Linux fanboying begins here>>

 

In many ways, Linux blows Windows out of the water, partially because it can either be exactly what you want it to be or even simpler than a Windows install, partly because updates for just about any program are done through your distribution's package manager and updates DO NOT REQUIRE SYSTEM REBOOT TO PERFORM (only to apply in certain cases), partly because of how programmer-friendly Linux-based systems are and also how it typically respects your privacy and intelligence by default. (Maybe it doesn't respect your intelligence if you're using GNOME though lol)

 

My biggest gripe with the ecosystem in general is lack of GUI mouse settings, but creating a script for xinput isn't too bad, and you likely only have to create it once per system.

 

Overall, from a technical standpoint, Windows survives these days due to A: Microsoft's heavy-handed strategies earlier on, B: Apple not wanting desktop dominance (instead making money off being the cool dudes & charging 3x as much for a shinier box) C: Lack of support (or even resistance to support) Linux in many cases on both a software and hardware level (e.g. Nvidia chips now REFUSE to run drivers that don't come from Nvidia themselves, and Nvidia's drivers are proprietary which doesn't generally mix with Linux philosophy well)

 

 

TL;DR:

• All 3 OSs run different kernels
• Linux and MacOS are based on UNIX and share a basic file system structure
• Linux is ultra-customizable, and distributions vary wildly in what they offer as a result (Technically even Android is a Linux distribution)
• Apple are twats
• Linux is by far the best system to program on, as it comes pre-installed with a C/C++/O-C/Assembly compiler and many distributions come pre-installed with Python, and many libraries can be installed and linked directly from the package manager instead of by going to a dozen websites and linking all the .libs and .hs to VisualStudio

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

In short :

 

 

[pipnina]

3 hours ago, Captain Chaos said:

Linux is more like "Buy a windows laptop... Install Gentoo on it... *compiling intensifies*... *configuration intensifies*... start working"

I suppose System76 and pogolinux exist now, and DELL offers one or two Ubuntu machines.

[DrMacintosh]

On 10/31/2017 at 6:32 AM, Captain Chaos said:

I know it’s a meme but you haven’t had to pay for software update from Apple for years now. 

[krishna1997]

windows for  using pc 

mac for style

linux for servers 

[TopHatProductions115]

On 10/30/2017 at 8:18 AM, pipnina said:

At their core, the main difference between a Linux, MacOS and Windows machine is the kernel in use, Windows uses the NT kernel (created and maintained by microsoft), MacOS uses a modified version of the BSD kernel (which apple calls "Darwin"), and all Linux OSs must by definition run on the Linux kernel.

 

A step higher, and we find that the userland of the three types of system vary dramatically. As a general rule, Linux-based desktop operating systems will use the GNU coreutils as the basis for user interaction, with graphical forms of interaction optionally (or by default, depending on the distribution) At this stage, Linux-based systems are the most modular and flexible, which is part of why they have such success in the server and embedded market.

 

MacOS comes pre-installed with the GNU coreutils, although very outdated versions (i.e. 2009) due to Apple's policy on GPLv3 licensed software. MacOS also loosely follows the same file structure as most Linux-based machines as they share a common ancestry with UNIX, although MacOS's file structure has been massively modified. AFAIK all components of MacOSs GUI are tied to the other parts of the system.

 

Windows used to be a program that ran on top of DOS, and as such early versions of Windows effectively just executed DOS commands through a GUI, in more "modern" (AFAIK 95/98 up) Windows systems the command prompt is where all legacy DOS functionality lies, and it is (AFAIK) the only of the major desktop OSs to not run BASH natively (WSL doesn't count). Windows can be modified, but in a much more limited fashion. Windows also runs drivers in userland, as opposed to Linux which runs drivers in kernel space (which is better is up for debate).

 

<<Linux fanboying begins here>>

 

In many ways, Linux blows Windows out of the water, partially because it can either be exactly what you want it to be or even simpler than a Windows install, partly because updates for just about any program are done through your distribution's package manager and updates DO NOT REQUIRE SYSTEM REBOOT TO PERFORM (only to apply in certain cases), partly because of how programmer-friendly Linux-based systems are and also how it typically respects your privacy and intelligence by default. (Maybe it doesn't respect your intelligence if you're using GNOME though lol)

 

My biggest gripe with the ecosystem in general is lack of GUI mouse settings, but creating a script for xinput isn't too bad, and you likely only have to create it once per system.

 

Overall, from a technical standpoint, Windows survives these days due to A: Microsoft's heavy-handed strategies earlier on, B: Apple not wanting desktop dominance (instead making money off being the cool dudes & charging 3x as much for a shinier box) C: Lack of support (or even resistance to support) Linux in many cases on both a software and hardware level (e.g. Nvidia chips now REFUSE to run drivers that don't come from Nvidia themselves, and Nvidia's drivers are proprietary which doesn't generally mix with Linux philosophy well)

 

 

TL;DR:

• All 3 OSs run different kernels
• Linux and MacOS are based on UNIX and share a basic file system structure
• Linux is ultra-customizable, and distributions vary wildly in what they offer as a result (Technically even Android is a Linux distribution)
• Apple are twats
• Linux is by far the best system to program on, as it comes pre-installed with a C/C++/O-C/Assembly compiler and many distributions come pre-installed with Python, and many libraries can be installed and linked directly from the package manager instead of by going to a dozen websites and linking all the .libs and .hs to VisualStudio

But, I must ask - isn't MacOS's XNU kernel more independent of BSD than that?

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

 

Just checking, because I thought that MacOS counted as a Unix distro - not a Linux distro. The commands in Terminal seem to attest to such as well.

 

In addition to such, I must also ask if Darwin is a kernel, or an OS?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system)

I thought it was considered an OS, written over the XNU. But, I could be wrong...

Edited November 14, 2017 by TopHatProductions115