Linux Vs Windows HELP

[8BitHate]

I'm writing a essay for college comparing Linux and windows and dont worry I'm not asking you guys to basically write my essay but I know very little about Linux and its use cases etc. So I was hoping you guys could help! 

It asks to compare things like features such as folder management; system security and customizability, so I would love to hear about your personal experiences with Linux and what you used it for such as if it was for a server or just a PC!     

(Dont worry this isn't for my "finals", I'm from the UK so I'm not in Uni yet.)

[sabot]

I think that Linux is better for everything except for some computer games because they are not designed for it. Windows coasts so much vs all the other os, even apple does not charge as much! Windows is so locked down versus how linux works. Linux is a lot easier to upgrade systems and have multiple ones be in since with each other. Also there is different flavors of linux for every type of machine, such as junkie old laptops can use lubuntu, and better ones can run everything. Since linux uses a lot less of a systems resources you are able to do more with the system and most of the software is free because of the community developed stuff. Only positive for windows in my opinion is all the programs that are developed for Windows.

[8BitHate]

 Also there is different flavors of linux for every type of machine, such as junkie old laptops can use lubuntu, and better ones can run everything. Since linux uses a lot less of a systems resources you are able to do more with the system and most of the software is free because of the community developed stuff. Only positive for windows in my opinion is all the programs that are developed for Windows.

So would you say that for someone whos new to the OS, that its easy for them to learn how to use? And how much of a variation is there between each "flavour" of Linux?

[sabot]

Each flavor of linux just has different packages installed. There are ones that have less stuff as far as the windows manager so the machine does not need to have as good of gpu.

Someone asks this question here: https://www.linuxforums.org/forum/coffee-lounge/186244-difference-between-linux-distros.html

Linux is harder to first learn, but I used it as my first os when I was 8, so it really is not that bad. Some people from windows look for stupid windows additions that are useless power wasting things. Right now I am stuck using windows because most of my steam library is not linux compatiable, but once it is I plan to go full Xubuntu. Also there are some windows program emulators from linux such as wine so you can use most of the windows programs on linux.

[alpenwasser]

Been using exclusively Linux on my personal machines since about 2007, and TBH when

it comes to "features and functions", things are extremely murky, at best. In

principle, there are probably very few things you can do with Windows that you can't

do with Linux and vice versa (though you might need to develop the required tools

first), but the respective software ecosystems do of course tend to narrow usage

scenarios in certain cases.

Example: Photoshop and all that other professional Adobe stuff is not available on

Linux, and therefore Linux is not very prevalent amongst people who require photo

editing software in a professional capacity (though the alternatives on Linux, mostly

GIMP, are very powerful by now and would suffice for most people's requirements).

As already mentioned, the situation with gaming is similar, though with Steam coming

to Linux this might change in the next five to ten years (yay! ).

On the other hand, Linux is very dominant when it comes to servers and cluster computing.

But in the end, what really distinguishes the two OS (apart from philosophical differences

and distribution models) are the underlying innards, which no normal user would of

course ever get to see. Sure, the GUIs don't look the same, but in the end, a "Settings"

button is a "Settings" button, and point-and-click configuration and usage is very

similar between platforms.

Personally I've been using Linux as my daily operating systems, doing uni work, coding,

internet surfing etc., haven't really gamed any modern games on my machine in quite a few

years.

As for beginner friendliness: There are Linux distros (for example Ubuntu or Mint) which

are very beginner friendly and easy to use, and then there's stuff like Arch or Gentoo,

which require a bit more understanding of what goes on beneath the hood (though Arch is

not actually as complex as many make it out to be IMHO).

Further reading:

The Wikipedia article on Linux is a pretty good place to start, I recommend you

read that and then go from there. For understanding Linux (or, more precisely, GNU/Linux)

and the accompanying philosophy, culture and technical aspects, it's a good idea to get at

least some general knowledge of the history of UNIX and unix-like operating systems. It's

a lot of reading, but if you really want to know there's not much you can do about that.