Windows or Linux

[morgi90]

Im a windows faithful at the moment, but im looking into getting linux. anyone think one is better than the other?

[Sam]

I have Linux servers, a Linux firewall and Windows desktops.

There is no 'better', it depends what you want to do with the machine.

[Cyberplod]

Totally agree with Sam.

Windows is by far the most prevalent operating system for the end user (although that may be technically arguable when you allow that linux is the power behind both Android and Mac OS-X). If you want day to day convenience and don't want to buy into Microsoft-bashing it is probably the way to go. A little hunting around will find you some first class applications for free, such as Libre Office as an MS Office alternative, The GIMP for photo-editing etc. Microsoft also do some impressive give-aways in the "Live" series too.

If you want to get down to the nuts and bolts of your system and are willing to put some time in, linux has some real advantages. For one thing, it is not inclined to prevent you from accessing parts of your own system! (though these may be areas you may not to wish to stray into too often). It is also less susceptible to virus and other malware attacks.

It really is your own choice, they are both pretty damn good operating systems.

[dessimpson]

I use windows as my main computer (gaming etc) and on my laptop.
I have an Ubuntu linux machine in the bedroom for playing movies as it runs happily on a low spec machine.

There are some nice versions of Linux out there. I personally use an older version of Ubuntu as I can't get on with the Unity interface.
Mint is a good distro too. Nice and clean and very easy to use.

[Sam]

Bloody hell Des - welcome back!

[Eshrules]

holy mother of joseph.

all we need now is Huw to come back and I can relive some of my earlier vwaf memories <grin>

[SuperCharger28]

Windows for ease of use

Linux for security and servers.

[dessimpson]

Bloody hell Des - welcome back!

Lol. lurking away :)

[sooty]

I have an Ubuntu linux machine in the bedroom for playing movies as it runs happily on a low spec machine.

Runs great on limited resources

[theskyfox]

Both very good operating systems and very capable. If you are going to be gaming you will need to have Windows as there is no Direct X implementation in Linux. Also if you are developing code, there is limited support for .NET. For general use such as web surfing and watching movies your experience will be the same in both.

Have you considered dual booting? (having both installed at once) It would mean you could have your cake and eat it...and you could always remove one or the other at a later date.

-Andrew

[wilburforce]

Windows, Linux is a great OS but sooner or later you will need a program that is not supported by Linux. Could always VM it!

[swisstoni]

I use windows desktops and linux servers... Linux is cheaper (obviously!) but more noticeable if you're renting servers. People will probably spend hours discussing the pro's and con's of both - but both are very capable. If you need support, choose windows. If you're into 'hacking' stuff around to make it work and value the sense of achievement that might/will give you - then give linux a bash!

[dessimpson]

We've run an application on Sun servers running SunOS. It is a royal pain in the *** as we can deploy this server anywhere in the world and it is a nightmare reconfiguring it for different networks.

We're moving to deploying multiple servers as VM's on Hyper-V (don't ask :zx11:) so we'll be moving onto a new version of the application that can run on Windows and I seriously cannot wait (Hyper-V aside).

On the flip side. We had a very large Oracle install on multiple Windows machines at my last place. The move to Linux servers cut our workload by about 90% and was the best "downgrade" I've ever experienced :)

[sidtec]

We've run an application on Sun servers running SunOS. It is a royal pain in the *** as we can deploy this server anywhere in the world and it is a nightmare reconfiguring it for different networks.

Slightly OT, but I've found Solaris 10 to be rock solid for running applications and the built-in 'zones' hypervisor is great for server side stuff.

[Ginja]

Couldn't agree more.. Being an ex Sun employee, and now Oracle, it's very strange, considering alot of companies use Solaris, as it's very stable, but Oracle are very much driving Linux.. Windows however is very much an End User operating system geared towards those that just want an easy life :-)

[DickBrowne]

Isn't OSX based upon an iteration of freebsd, which is Unix, rather than Linux?

That aside, I'd ask how happy you are with working under the covers - if you're one of those people who (to parapharase Blackadder) is quite happy to wear a pair of trousers without needing to know how they work, then I'd stick with Windows.

Why Linux? Well, it's cheaper by far, arguably more flexible and without a doubt far more resilient and less resource hungry.

As has been stated above, it depends entirely what you're trying to achieve - office productivity and web browsing isn't an issue with linux, but games may be, and you may occasionally need to roll up your sleeves and fix a problem which simply wouldn't exist on Windows.

[dessimpson]

I've still got my linux machine and I still use it quite a bit but since upgrading to the newest version of Ubuntu I'm getting a bit hacked off with it. It's starting to struggle with some things now so I think it's probably time to downgrade it or switch to another distro.

I'm quite tempted to try "Mint" Linux as it looks like quite a lightweight version. Failing that I'll either just go to an older Ubuntu or try one of the really lightweight ones.

Has anyone got any preferences for one that will run well on old hardware?

[Sam]

PCLOS (http://www.pclinuxos.com/) is my current favourite for fixing issues and giving old(er) PCs a new lease of life - the bonus is it looks like Windows too, very helpful for those people stuck in their ways.

Depending on what's annoying with Ubuntu, you could give Lubuntu (http://lubuntu.net/) a bash and if you really hate yourself, go for Puppy (http://puppylinux.org) :D

[DickBrowne]

And that's one of the main issues with Linux for me - so many distros to choose from, so many issues to resolve and even the good ones are variable in their quality and approach. Not like Windows which is singular and predictable (tongue in cheek!)

[Eshrules]

And that's one of the main issues with Linux for me - so many distros to choose from, so many issues to resolve and even the good ones are variable in their quality and approach. Not like Windows which is singular and predictable (tongue in cheek!)

But windows doesn't have the user based support that linux does. If I've ever had an issue with linux, there's 100 people before me that have had the same issue and solved it, step by step.

Try getting that sort of support next time windows decides to visit the toilet.

[DickBrowne]

But windows doesn't have the user based support that linux does. If I've ever had an issue with linux, there's 100 people before me that have had the same issue and solved it, step by step.

Try getting that sort of support next time windows decides to visit the toilet.

It's still there - the windows geek community online is just as active, the difference is that only a fraction of a percent of windows users are technical, or that engaged, whereas many more times that figure in the linux community are that way inclined, and enthusiastic about the OS in a way that windows users just aren't.

[Eshrules]

It's still there - the windows geek community online is just as active, the difference is that only a fraction of a percent of windows users are technical, or that engaged, whereas many more times that figure in the linux community are that way inclined, and enthusiastic about the OS in a way that windows users just aren't.

So, pretty much what I said then?

Pointless having an active community that knows shove all about the subject matter?

[DickBrowne]

So, pretty much what I said then?

Pointless having an active community that knows shove all about the subject matter?

Pretty much what you said, but in absolute numbers, a fraction of a percent of Windows users is actually a very large number of people, and some of them are very knowledgeable indeed - I've yet to find a Windows problem I couldn't find reference to on the web, and for the record, I'm a geek, a proper geek with poor dress sense, and personal hygiene problems. I love Linux and Unix, but respect Windows for what it can achieve (which, I absolutely agree, is far less than a ux OS in the right hands). To position this statement, my last startup was bought by Dell, but we designed and built a management appliance built upon FreeBSD, which now accounts for around 5% of the global systems management marketplace. That's how geeky I am :)

Linux over Windows every time for me, but I didn't want the many many thousands of really good windows geeks to go unrecognised either.