Explain the differences and similarities between Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.?

Question

Explain the differences and similarities between Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.?

Answer 1

Mac OS is based on Unix. Linux is also based on Unix and follows a similar architectural paradigm. Linux is free and open source and as a result there are a lot of free and open source programs available for it. Windows is made by Microsoft and is the largest consumer OS in the world. As a result, most software developers design software for Windows.

Answer 2

character encoded OS (less GUI) no games

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No and no.

Put a little effort into your Linux desktop and it'll make Windows 7 look like something from 1995 =|

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ&nofeather=True



Alot of Windows games run on wine, you do still need Windows for some things though. No games is just wrong though.



Other advantages of Linux, it shares OS X's Unix foundation so it's inherently alot more secure. You don't just download an exe file from somewhere on the internet, and run it - that just doesn't happen in Linux. Virtually all software is open source meaning the source code is checked before being placed in repositories. A virus in Linux is so unheard of there are is no anti virus software for Linux, you simply don't need it.



You wouldn't think it looking at Ubuntu and Suse and the likes but Linux's motto is do it yourself. If something goes wrong, anyone if free to fix it and offer their solution to the community. Ontop of that this offers a massive amount of customisation. If you don;t like something, you can change it. Although this does require effort and knowhow. Microsoft gives you Windows and Linux gives you the whole house - is the famous quote, essentially, if you put the time in you can do anything with Linux, but it's hard to break the generic mould that Windows is cast from to suit normal people who don;t know the difference between their mouse and their keyboard. Sure you can customise Windows a little but it's nothing compared to what you can do with Linux. Then of course, when Windows breaks all you can do is cry and hope Microsoft has a solution.



Another key difference is the modular structure of Unix means you rarely have to reboot OS X or Linux machines. You don;t have to reboot Linux at all except for kernel updates which aren't that frequent. You hear about people leaving their Linux boxes on for months on end. On the other hand is Windows where you have to reboot everytime you install a program or run Windows update. This also means when an individual program crashes in OS X or Linux it can't take the whole OS down with it. Same can't be said about Windows.



My last major point is shells. If you've never seen the black box called command prompt you probably wont care but OS X/ Linux's bash terminal is just soooooo useful. Windows command prompt is as useful as a nun's ****. When your shell needs a mouse to paste text you know you're using the wrong OS....



And before anyone says something stupid like "there are no viruses on OS X/ Linux/ because no one uses it" I've been thinking about how to put this in layman's terms. Remember a few years ago before Google Chrome? something like 80% of people used IE and everyone said Firefox is more secure because "no one uses it" and black hats don;t bother coding exploits for it. Well here we are, Firefox is very popular and mainstream now, plenty of people use it, but guess what, it's still alot more secure than IE simply because it is a superior browser to IE in terms of security. Apply same logic to Windows vs OS X/ *nix.



erm summery

Can't/ don;t care about customisation you just want it to work out of the box ~ Windows - OS X

You want to compile your own kernel ~ Linux

Better security ~OS X, Linux

User friendly ~ Windows - OS X

Don't have to restart your computer every time you move your mouse ~ OS X - Linux

Bash ~ OS X - Linux

Solitaire!!!!!! ~ Windows



Personally I use Linux because not only do I not mind investing extra time and effort into making it work exactly the way I want it to but I enjoy it.



If you read all that you deserve a cookie ^_^

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

The only similarity is the MAC OSx and Linux. Neither are similar to Windows. They are operating systems. They have their own type of software that may or may not be similar to each other. Software wise Windows has more available than the other two. To crash MAC OSx and Linux requires the user to do some thing very dumb and Stupid. In Windows the user doesn't even have to be at fault. Neither one of these two require a user to be constantly fixing and repairing issues and problems. The question was similarities and the answer is simply the basics of the operating system, beyond that there really isn't any.

Answer 5

All three are operating systems. As you know the operating system is similar to the librarian in a library. Windows and most of its programs are paid. If you say Hello Bill Window, you are billed 10 dollars. It is not a coincidence that the founder of windows is Bill. Linux is a free OS. Free as in freedom. Highly paid computer proffesionals devote their time free of charge in service to develop programs for Linux. Linux is immune to virus and malware. Its stable, strong and versatile. Problem is there are around 300 linux distros. In the field of gaming Linux has very little to offer. So for an avid gamer it is better to avoid linux. Mac OS also is a versatile OS and resides in highly priced Macs. He was called in one period of history as McIntosh. Mac started versatile graphical user interface.

Answer 6

Windows is based off of Dos, and at this point comparing windows and Linux/Mac/Unix is like comparing apples and oranges. Linux and MacOSX are both a clone of Unix, MacOSX being a modified version of FreeBSD.



Shown below is an excerpt from the Linux kernel source README file that explains the relationship between Linux and UNIX. Though there’s no author attribution for this file, it’s obvious that the definition it carries has the blessing of those who create the Linux kernel, including Linus himself:



WHAT IS LINUX?



Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single Unix Specification compliance.



It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged Unix, including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, and multistack networking including IPv4 and IPv6.

Answer 7

Why Linux is Better

http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/



Overall a Linux based platform can perform most of the tasks equally as well as a proprietary platform using the likes of Ubuntu and its derivative distros. However Linux does have its limitations with some applications and in particular gaming. For example I retain a dedicated Windows partition to run specific applications such as Office 2010 etc.



I thoroughly recommend Linux Mint 11 which is built upon Ubuntu 11.04 but more stable. Its easy to install and easy to use plus it comes with much of the software you are likely to need preinstalled



Linux Mint 11 Download

http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=81



How To Dual Boot Linux Mint and Windows 7

http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2010/12/08/how-to-dual-boot-linux-mint-10-and-windows-7/



Linux Mint 11 Release Notes/User Guide

http://linuxmint.com/rel_katya.php



You download the ISO. image of Linux Mint 11 then you need to create a Bootable LiveDVD for installation

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto



Linux Mint 11 can also be run straight from the LiveDVD from Boot without touching your Hard Drive





LUg.

Answer 8

SO MAC OS. I am typing this right now on mac. Oh yeah remember, more users and developers means more viruses and hackers. That's why people using windows gets more viruses and more people hack users using windows. There are a little less users on mac but, there are barely any hackers and viruses on mac. Mac also has beter computer "security' which prevents hackers to hack on. So you should buy a mac and then if you want you can download linux for free on mac too.





EDIT: If you really like all os you know can download all three of them on to a computer. I would stick with mac and linux.

Answer 9

windows : lots of viruses, Trojans, hacks and malware so unless and until you don't put antivirus you are unsafe. Its not necessary to buy paid version of third party of software or even copy of widows itself. Start-up time 7min34sec after installing everything. Less artistic look, good for office work worse for art related any work. Lots of games on this platform. Specs : Kernel hardware system with DOS operating system and dynamic link libraries created in C or C++



Mac : minimum or lets say 'no' viruses, Trojans, hacks and malware so you don't need to pay for that you can surf freely every where. you must always by full version of proper paid version from Mac store or become professional coder to develop interdependent Java code for each software script to make it free full version and install on system start-up time 4min23sec after installing everything more or i say best artistic look. Good for office as well as any art related work.

less games on this plat form. Specs : JAVA coded secure applets and UNIX based operating system



Linux : most dominated server based character encoded OS (less GUI) no games

Answer 10

So to throw my 2 cents in since most of the other answers seem to be pro-Mac.



Windows: Windows has a bad rap for being unsecure back in the day, Window 7 is much better since it has an entirely different kernel than WinXP. Vista even had a different kernel, but Win7 kernel is improved over Vista's. The reason that there are so many virus for Windows is because of security flaws within the system which lead to several ways to make hacks. Many of them have been fixed. Somebody said their windows takes like 7 minutes to boot up, haha mine takes maybe 2 or 3 minutes and yes there is a ton of software on it. I just don't let everything start up that doesn't need too. I recently have had only issue on windows is that there is a lack for free software, but there is quite a bit as well.



Linux: Linux is probably my favorite kernel to work with, whether I am running Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSe, Puppy, they all have their pros and cons. All software is not free under Linux, but most task can be accomplished with free software. Linux can get virus especially since everybody wants a point and click system nowadays. I prefer to compile all my own software under linux since its possible and you get it specifically for the architecture I need. Also, I work in computational sciences so Linux is my favorite development environment, especially will all the compilers included. I do have the Intel compilers on a few machines which are amazing to use on Linux. I'd highly recommend them. They do have windows and mac versions, but I don't remember the last time I saw a Mac cluster. With the development of cloud computing and the online software to edit files, Linux will start becoming even more popular due to price, speed, security, and new GUIs. Linux can also read/write nearly any file system, so plus one for that!



Mac: I don't mess with Macs at all (unless my friends break them and I have to rescue them). I think they are overprices for the hardware included in them. The slogan that it just works is bogus. My room mate has his research on a Mac and everytime I talk to him about it, he said he needed to rebuild some library. He is a Linux user as well, but he has a mac for research now. The OS isn't free, neither is Windows though so no loss. One of these days, somebody will make a nasty virus for Mac. (Point, Click, queries your root password for install, and then you get pwnd). Mac just makes you use a restricted account to begin with rather than an admin account like you can in windows. I will say that macs have fantastic multimedia output though, but iTunes can suck it!



Long story short is that it comes down to preferences and usability for your needs. Every OS can get a virus, Windows was just more prominent among the common and had security flaws in the kernel so they were hackable choice. Let's break this down into business types normally associated with OS type:



Business (Banks, Stocks, Retail): Most likely Windows



Multimedia(Movies, Music, Graphic Design): Most likely Mac



Scientific(Supercomputing, Research, ultimate geeks): Most likely Linux with some Mac and Windows users



EDIT: Kevin +1 for mention of the shells. Windows finally has an okay shell (powershell 2.0), where Mac and Linux shells are simply amazing.



I think LUg married Linux Mint. That's all I ever see [s]he post about.

Answer 11

Mac OS is the superior of them all. That's all you need to know.

Answer 12

There are many. You can watch videos. Below are some links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv-QiB39oGg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLUELmxFpC4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHCDU-CUoaQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM-v1ukwdAI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpR6jwQXc3Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XjGvYgWZio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7fGRq92KUI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83JGgxbH1B4



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXl_px0gsEM



Please note that when people refer to a "PC," they mean a "Windows."