RE: [tlug] Linux and Windows {2k|Xp|Vista} Comparison

[<burlingk@example.com>]

> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 4
> Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 15:09:54 +0900
> From: "Nguyen Vu Hung" <vuhung16plus@example.com>
> Subject: [tlug] Linux and Windows {2k|Xp|Vista} Comparison
> To: "Tokyo Linux Users Group" <tlug@example.com>
> Message-ID:
> 	<78d7dd350610172309u6cc97ff6xe067c764d63eb7d5@example.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
> 
> Tlug,
> 
> I found this comparison on the net,
> 
> http://people.freebsd.org/~murray/bsd_flier.html
> 
> It compare many aspects of FreeBSD, Linux and Windows but 
> quite outdated.
> 
> So first I want to share with you this info, and second, if 
> you know any newer one, please share and discuss :P.
> 
> -- 
> Best Regards,
> Nguyen Hung Vu
> vuhung16plus{remove}@example.com
> VIQR Standard: http://vi.i18n.kde.org/viqr.txt


You are right, it is a little dated.  :-)  I only have convenient access
to .org and .edu pages at the moment, so search engines are out as far
as I know for me.  Does anyone know of a web search that is on a .edu or
.org domain? :-)

I think though, that there is still room for discussion just based on
the info on that page.  Linux (and as much as we hate to admit it
Windows) has(have) come a long ways in the last three years or so.

Reliability:  I'm not going to say much on this one.  Linux and BSD are
still more reliable. :-)

Performance:  Performance wise, the updates in the rest of the
categories has resulted in Linux having far better performance than it
once did.  Windows performance has increased slightly, but that is
mainly because they figured out how to create a decent file system.  Now
if they would share the info on said file system, we could access it
safely.

Security:  The report overall is biased on this subject (Which is
understandable.  It is on a BSD site.)  Linux has always been pretty
quick as far as I know to update any security issues that are found.  I
think mostly though that they are indicating not so much a dislike for
the OS, but a feeling that the developer community at the time was a
little less mature.  This may have been accurate at the time.  BSD was
building off a background of full UNIX programming.  Linux/GNU took
things in a new direction and were often made up of people wanting to
get away from UNIX, or who had never gone there to start with.  :-)
Every entity starts young.  Even UNIX was young once.  Now I think Linux
has matured greatly.

File System:  The page makes reference to up and coming Linux file
systems that are expected to improve things greatly.  :-)  Since then of
course (soon after the article no less) those file systems hit the
streets, and have had much time to test and debug.  They work rather
nicely now. ^_^  As for Windows...  NTFS has come a long ways.  The
current version is fast and stable.  It is not as open as I would like,
but it is not as bad as it once was.

Device Drivers:  This area is of course moving slowly for everyone who's
initials are not M. S. ^^;;  Stubborn coders however are making some
progress as time passes, as are stubborn PR people in the area of
pressuring the hardware developers.

Commercial Applications:  This is an area where headway is being
steadily made, but Microsoft still has the lead by a fairly major
margin.  As long as businesses believe that they cannot profit from
other platforms, those other platforms will be low priority.  The best
advice that I have, is to make sure that any survey that shows Linux as
an option for your OS of choice, mark it. :P  Any survey that asks if
you would buy a product to run under Linux, mark yes.  Most importantly,
if some product that you have always wanted to see a port of becomes
available for Linux, buy it, even if they offer a free download. :P

Free Applications:  Linux is still in the lead here..  Maybe BSD,
because of the binary compatibility things mentioned.  Windows however
has made major strides forward due to the surprising number of people
who have ported free programs to windows.


Development Environment:  I feel that the development tools available
under Linux easily rival those of BSD or any UNIX.  With modern Linux
distros being more unified than ever before (partly because they are now
mostly derived from a few different older distros :P), the binary
compatibility issues listed as a con here, are in most cases a
non-issue.  Now the issue is more a matter of dependencies and kernel
version.  The more mature that the Linux kernel becomes, the fewer
compatibility issues there will be.   Windows still lags WAY behind in
this area.  Yes, Microsoft has finally decided to start building tools
that are more compliant with open standards, BUT, and this is the big
part, they are still not free in terms of freedom, nor beer. :P  You
still have to buy them separately, and with the exception of the C++
compiler suite (Which is still close to 100$ USD for the commercial box)
they mostly cost almost as much for the individual tools as you would
pay for the OS (Which is too expensive as it is).

Support:  In a world where the average user is lucky if they know how to
program their VCR, technical support is a vital commodity.  The fact
that you have to pay as much as 400$USD (considerably more in Japan) for
an operating system, and still have to wait on the phone for hours (they
don't offer any apology or compensation) just to be ran around in
circles and jump through hoops to prove who you are, and THEN you might
get the support you need...  I am not even sure why MS's support
structure is even legal...  I have never been lacking for support for
any distro of Linux, especially in the Debian/Ubuntu/Knopix
community(ies).  Usually if you cannot find the answers you need in the
room for the actual distro that you are using, then someone in one of
the other two(ok three now that Kubuntu has it's own channel) channels
(IRC Channels) can usually help.  I imagine that finding help for Free
BSD is probably not much harder.

Most importantly though, beyond the fact that the support for Linux or
BSD is often free, is the fact that the person helping you most likely
went through the same problem themselves, and are passing on to you the
knowledge that they gained from someone else, along with whatever trial
and error they went through themselves.


Price:  Free or cheap with grade A support, vs. anywhere from 120$ (OEM
no support) to 400$+ with crappy support...  I don't think this issue
even needs to be addressed. ^^;;