Linux v/s Windows
The Microsoft and Linux Operating system have been long considered to be in a competition to be the best operating systems on the market. As of late, more and more controversy is being debated over what operating system will prevail and ultimately dominate in the field of both, desktop computer and server systems.
Linux has often been the tool of the technical user. Efforts are being made to make the Linux user interface simple. Linux’s ancestry goes back to a mainframe operating system known as Multics and UNIX. Individual programmers revised and improved UNIX and informed the original developers of these changes who incorporated them into the original UNIX. Soon enough, AT&T declared UNIX as its intellectual property and began collecting license fees. Thus, Linus Torvalds along with other programmers came together and developed the kernel for his operating system which came to be known as Linux. In 1992, Linux had been integrated with GNU to produce a fully functional operating system.
Linux has always been popular among computer developers, programmers and the like. Most casual users stay away from it because it is difficult to run it on the desktop computer. Users without any hardware knowledge find trouble installing Linux and this has hurt it in a strong way.
In the early 90’s, Microsoft had developed MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), which used a command line interface to facilitate interaction between the user and computer. After this, Windows made its first appearance, providing an appealing “drag and drop” and “click and install” interface that persuaded most users away from text based systems like Linux. However, recent projects like GNOME (GNU Network Object Model Environment) have taken care of these issues, and Linux is now gaining some popularity.
Linux’s success can be attributed to the choices that are available to the user. It is an open source OS which allows hackers or programmers to modify their computers to suit their personal needs by hacking the kernel itself. This is something that cannot be done with most of the commercial operating systems. Linux can be used by both new and advanced users. Contrary to the popular belief, actions are simpler sometimes in the world of Linux. For example, customizing the desktop on windows would involve installing third party