Fedora is an RPM-based, general purpose operating system built on top of the Linux

kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red

Hat. Fedora's mission statement is: "Fedora is about the rapid progress of Free and Open
Source software."[3]

One of Fedora's main objectives is not only to contain free and open source software, but
also to be on the leading edge of such technologies.[3][4] Also, developers in Fedora prefer
to make upstream changes instead of applying fixes specifically for Fedora — this
ensures that updates are available to all Linux distributions.[5]

Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, says he uses Fedora because it had fairly
good support for PowerPC when he used that processor architecture. He became
accustomed to the operating system and continues to use it.[6]

Contents
[hide]

• 1 History
• 2 Features
o 2.1 Distribution
o 2.2 Software repositories
o 2.3 Security features
• 3 Releases
o 3.1 Fedora Core 1–4
o 3.2 Fedora Core 5–6
o 3.3 Fedora 7
o 3.4 Fedora 8
o 3.5 Fedora 9
o 3.6 Fedora 10
o 3.7 Version history
o 3.8 Fedora gallery
• 4 Fedora-based distributions
• 5 See also
• 6 References

• 7 External links

[edit] History
The Fedora Project was created in late 2003, when Red Hat Linux was discontinued.[7]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux was to be Red Hat's only officially supported Linux
distribution, while Fedora was to be a community distribution.[7] Red Hat Enterprise
Linux branches its releases from versions of Fedora.[8]
The name of Fedora derives from Fedora Linux, a volunteer project that provided extra
software for the Red Hat Linux distribution, and from the characteristic fedora used in
Red Hat's "Shadowman" logo. Fedora Linux was eventually absorbed into the Fedora
Project.[9] Fedora is a trademark of Red Hat. Although this has previously been disputed
by the creators of the Fedora repository management software, the issue has now been
resolved.[10]

[edit] Features
[edit] Distribution

PackageKit, the default package manager on Fedora

The Fedora Project distributes Fedora in several different ways:[11]

• Fedora DVD – a DVD of all major Fedora packages at time of shipping;

• Live images – CD or DVD sized images that can be used to create a Live CD or
install Fedora on a USB flash drive;
• Minimal CD or USB image – used for installing over HTTP, FTP or NFS[12]
• Rescue CD or USB image – used if some part of the system has failed and needs
to be fixed, or for installing over the Internet.

The Fedora Project also distributes custom variations of Fedora which are called Fedora
spins.[13] These are built from a specific set of software packages and have a combination
of software to meet the requirements of a specific kind of end user. Fedora spins are
developed by several Fedora special interest groups.[14] It is also possible to create Live
USB versions of Fedora using Fedora Live USB creator or UNetbootin.

Software package management is primarily handled by the yum utility.[15] Graphical

interfaces, such as pirut and pup are provided, as well as puplet, which provides visual
notifications in the panel when updates are available.[15] apt-rpm is an alternative to yum,
and may be more familiar to people used to Debian or Debian-based distributions, where
Advanced Packaging Tool is used to manage packages.[16] Additionally, extra repositories
can be added to the system, so that packages not available in Fedora can be installed.[17]

[edit] Software repositories

 It has been suggested that RPMforge be merged into this article or section.
(Discuss)

Before Fedora 7, there were two main repositories – Core and Extras. Fedora Core
contained all the base packages that were required by the operating system, as well as
other packages that were distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs, and was
maintained only by Red Hat developers. Fedora Extras, the secondary repository that was
included from Fedora Core 3, was community-maintained and not distributed along with
the installation CD/DVDs. Since Fedora 7, the Core and Extras repositories have been
merged, hence the distribution's dropping the Core from its name.[18] That also allowed
for community submissions of packages that were formerly allowed only by Red Hat
developers.

Also prior to Fedora 7 being released, there was a third repository called Fedora Legacy.
This repository was community-maintained and was mainly concerned with extending
the life cycle of older Fedora Core distributions and selected Red Hat Linux releases that
were no longer officially maintained.[19] Fedora Legacy was shut down in December
2006.[20]

There are also third party repositories aimed at Fedora, like RPMforge and RPM Fusion,
which contain software that cannot be put in the official repositories for licensing or
support reasons.

[edit] Security features

Security is one of the most important features in Fedora.[citation needed] One of the security
features in Fedora is Security-Enhanced Linux, a Linux feature that implements a variety
of security policies, including mandatory access controls, through the use of Linux
Security Modules (LSM) in the Linux kernel. Fedora is one of the distributions leading
the way with SELinux.[21] SELinux was introduced in Fedora Core 2. It was disabled by
default, as it radically altered how the operating system worked, but was enabled by
default in Fedora Core 3 and introduced a less strict, targeted policy.[22][23]

Fedora also has methods in place to prevent some buffer overflow exploits and root kits
from functioning. Compile time buffer checks, Exec Shield and restrictions on how
kernel memory in /dev/mem can be accessed help to prevent this.[24]

[edit] Releases
[edit] Fedora Core 1–4
Fedora Core 1

Fedora Core 4 using GNOME and the Bluecurve theme

Fedora Core 1 was the first version of Fedora and was released on November 6, 2003.[25]
It was codenamed Yarrow. Fedora Core 1 was based on Red Hat Linux 9 and shipped
with version 2.4.19 of the Linux kernel, version 2.4 of the GNOME desktop environment,
and version 3.1.4 of KDE (the K Desktop Environment).[24]

Fedora Core 2 was released on May 18, 2004, codenamed Tettnang.[26] It shipped with
Linux 2.6, GNOME 2.6, KDE 3.2.2, and SELinux[26] (SELinux was disabled by default
due to concerns that it radically altered the way that Fedora Core ran).[22] XFree86 was
replaced by the newer X.org, a merger of the previous official X11R6 release, which
additionally included a number of updates to Xrender, Xft, Xcursor, fontconfig libraries,
and other significant improvements.[22]

Fedora Core 3 was released on November 8, 2004, codenamed Heidelberg.[27] This was
the first release of Fedora Core to include the Mozilla Firefox web browser, as well as
support for the Indic languages.[27] This release also saw the LILO boot loader deprecated
in favour of GRUB.[27] SELinux was also enabled by default, but with a new targeted
policy, which was less strict than the policy used in Fedora Core 2.[27] Fedora Core 3
shipped with GNOME 2.8 and KDE 3.3.[27] It was the first release to include the new
Fedora Extras repository.[23]

Fedora Core 4 was released on June 13, 2005, with the codename Stentz.[28] It shipped
with Linux 2.6.11,[28] KDE 3.4 and GNOME 2.10.[29] This version introduced the new
Clearlooks theme, which was inspired by the Red Hat Bluecurve theme.[29] It also shipped
with the OpenOffice.org 2.0 office suite, as well as Xen, a high performance and secure
open source virtualization framework.[29] It also introduced support for the PowerPC CPU
architecture, and over 80 new policies for SELinux.[29]
None of these distributions are maintained by the Fedora Project.[30]

[edit] Fedora Core 5–6

The last two cores introduced specific artwork that defined them. This is a trend that has
continued in later Fedora versions.

Fedora Core 5 was released on March 20, 2006, with the codename Bordeaux, and
introduced the Fedora Bubbles artwork.[31] It was the first Fedora release to include Mono
and tools built with it such as Beagle, F-Spot and Tomboy.[31] It also introduced new
package management tools such as pup and pirut (see Yellow dog Updater, Modified). It
also was the first Fedora release not to include the long deprecated (but kept for
compatibility) LinuxThreads, replaced by the Native POSIX Thread Library.[32]

Fedora Core 6 was released on October 24, 2006, codenamed Zod.[33] This release
introduced the Fedora DNA artwork, replacing the Fedora Bubbles artwork used in
Fedora Core 5.[34] The codename is derived from the infamous villain, General Zod, from
the Superman DC Comic Books.[35] This version introduced support for the Compiz
compositing window manager and AIGLX (a technology that enables GL-accelerated
effects on a standard desktop).[34] It shipped with Firefox 1.5 as the default web browser,
and Smolt, a tool that allows users to inform developers about the hardware they use.

Neither of these distributions are maintained by the Fedora Project.[30]

[edit] Fedora 7

Fedora 7, codenamed Moonshine, was released on May 31, 2007.[36] The biggest
difference between Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7 was the merging of the Red Hat "Core"
and Community "Extras" repositories,[36] and the new build system put in place to manage
those packages. This release used entirely new build and compose tools that enabled the
user to create fully-customized Fedora distributions that could also include packages
from any third party provider.[36]

There are three official spins available for Fedora 7:[37]

• Live – two Live CDs (one for GNOME and one for KDE);
• Fedora – a DVD that includes all the major packages available at shipping;
• Everything – simply an installation tree for use by yum and Internet installations.

Fedora 7 features GNOME 2.18 and KDE 3.5.6, a new theme entitled Flying High,
OpenOffice.org 2.2 and Firefox 2.0.[37] Fast user switching is, for the first time, fully
integrated and enabled by default.[37] Also, there were a number of updates to SELinux,
including a new setroubleshoot tool for debugging SELinux security notifications, and a
new, comprehensive system-config-selinux tool for fine-tuning the SELinux setup.[37] As
of 2008-06-13, Fedora 7 was no longer supported by the Fedora Project.[38][30]
[edit] Fedora 8

Fedora 8 with the Infinity theme

Fedora 8, codenamed Werewolf, was released on November 8, 2007.[39]

Some of the new features and updates in Fedora 8 include:[40]

• PulseAudio – a sound daemon that allows different applications to control the

audio. Fedora was the first distribution to enable it by default.[40]
• system-config-firewall – a new firewall configuration tool that replaces system-
config-securitylevel from previous releases.
• Codeina – a tool that guides users using content under proprietary or patent
encumbered formats to purchase codecs from fluendo; it is an optional component
that may be uninstalled in favor of Gstreamer codec plug-ins from Livna which
are free of charge.
• IcedTea – a project that attempts to bring OpenJDK to Fedora by replacing
encumbered code.
• NetworkManager – faster, more reliable connections;[40] better security (through
the use of the keyring); clearer display of wireless networks; better D-Bus
integration.
• Better laptop support – enhancements to the kernel to reduce battery load,
disabling of background cron jobs when running on the battery, and additional
wireless drivers.

Fedora 8 also includes a new desktop artwork entitled Infinity, and a new desktop theme
called Nodoka. A unique feature of Infinity is that the wallpaper can change during the
day to reflect the time of day.[40]

In February 2008, a new Xfce Live CD "spin" was announced for the x86 and x86-64
architectures.[41] This Live CD version uses the Xfce desktop environment, which aims to
be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use. Like the
GNOME and KDE spins, the Xfce spin can be installed to the hard disk.[41]

[edit] Fedora 9
Fedora 9 with the Waves theme

Fedora 9, codenamed Sulphur, was released on May 13, 2008.

Some of the new features of Fedora 9 include:[42]

• GNOME 2.22.
• KDE 4, which is the default interface as part of the KDE spin.
• OpenJDK 6 has replaced IcedTea.[43][44]
• PackageKit is included as a front-end to yum, and as the default package
manager.
• One Second X allows the X Window System to perform a cold start from the
command line in nearly one second; similarly, shutdown of X should be as quick.
[45]

• Many improvements to the Anaconda installer;[46] among these features, it now

supports resizing ext2, ext3 and NTFS file systems, and can create and install
Fedora to encrypted file systems.
• Firefox 3.0 beta 5 is included in this release, and the 3.0 package was released as
an update the same day as the general release.
• Perl 5.10.0, which features a smaller memory footprint and other improvements.
• Data Persistence in USB images[47]

Fedora 9 features a new artwork entitled Waves which, like Infinity in Fedora 8, changes
the wallpaper to reflect the time of day.

[edit] Fedora 10

Fedora 10 with the new Solar theme

Fedora 10, codenamed "Cambridge", was released on November 25, 2008.[48] Its features
include:[49]

• Web-based package installer similar to Linux Mint's[citation needed]

• Faster startup using Plymouth (instead of Red Hat Graphical Boot used in
previous versions)[citation needed]
• GNOME 2.24
• KDE 4.1.2

[edit] Version history

Color Meaning

Red Old release; not supported

Yellow Old release; still supported

Green Current release

Blue Future release

Project
Version Code name Release date Linux version
Name

Fedora Core 1 Yarrow 2003-11-05 2.4.19

2 Tettnang 2004-05-18 2.6.5

3 Heidelberg 2004-11-08 2.6.9

4 Stentz 2005-06-13 2.6.11

5 Bordeaux 2006-03-20 2.6.15

 6 Zod 2006-10-24 2.6.18

7 Moonshine 2007-05-31 2.6.21

8 Werewolf 2007-11-08 2.6.23.1

Fedora 9 Sulphur 2008-05-13 2.6.25

10 Cambridge 2008-11-25 2.6.27

11 TBA Possibly 2009-05-26[50] TBA

[edit] Fedora gallery

Fedora Core 1 Fedora Core 4 Fedora Core 5 Fedora Core 6

Fedora 7 Fedora 8 Fedora 9 Fedora 10

1. Welcome to Fedora 10
1.1. Welcome to Fedora

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open
source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. It is built
by people across the globe who work together as a community: the Fedora Project. The
Fedora Project is open and anyone is welcome to join. The Fedora Project is out front for
you, leading the advancement of free, open software and content.

Visit to view the latest release notes for Fedora, especially if you are upgrading.
If you are migrating from a release of Fedora older than the immediately previous
one, you should refer to older Release Notes for additional information. You can
find older Release Notes at http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/

You can help the Fedora Project community continue to improve Fedora if you file bug
reports and enhancement requests. Refer to
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugsAndFeatureRequests for more information about bug
and feature reporting. Thank you for your participation.

To find out more general information about Fedora, refer to the following Web pages:

• Fedora Overview - http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Overview

• Fedora FAQ - http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAQ
• Help and Discussions - http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate
• Participate in the Fedora Project - http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Join

1.2. Fedora 10 Overview

As always, Fedora continues to develop

(http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/RedHatContributions) and integrate the latest free
and open source software (http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features.) The following
sections provide a brief overview of major changes from the last release of Fedora. For
more details about other features that are included in Fedora 10, refer to their individual
wiki pages that detail feature goals and progress:

http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/10/FeatureList

Throughout the release cycle, there are interviews with the developers behind key
features giving out the inside story:

http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Interviews

The following are major features for Fedora 10:

 • Wireless connection sharing enables ad hoc network sharing --
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/ConnectionSharing
• Better setup and use of printers through improved management tools --
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/BetterPrinting
• Virtualization storage provisioning for local and remote connections now
simplified -- http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtStorage
• SecTool is a new security audit and intrusion detection system --
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SecurityAudit
• RPM 4.6 is a major update to the powerful, flexible software management
libraries -- http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/RPM4.6

Some other features in this release include:

• Glitch free audio and better performance is achieved through a rewrite of the
PulseAudio sound server to use timer-based audio scheduling --
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/GlitchFreeAudio
• Improved webcam support --
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/BetterWebcamSupport
• Better support for infrared remote controls makes them easier to connect and
work with many applications --
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/BetterLIRCSupport
• The paths /usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin have been added to the PATH for
normal users, to simplify command-line administration tasks --
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SbinSanity
• The online account service provides applications with credentials for online
accounts listed on http://online.gnome.org or stored in GConf --
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/OnlineAccountsService

Features for Fedora 10 are tracked on the feature list page:

http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/10/FeatureList

Fedora 9 Feature List

Fedora 9 Accepted Features

These features have been accepted by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee for the
Fedora 9 Release.

2008-
100% Bluetooth Ongoing Bluetooth enhancements
03-26
Improve the support for multiple 2008-
100% Clock Applet
timezones/locations in the clock applet 03-03
2008-
100% Dictionary Support Fix the proliferation of dictionaries in Fedora
04-07
 Xen fully virtualized guests will be able to directly
2008-
100% Full Virt Kernel Boot boot a kernel and initrd image and pass kernel boot
03-15
args
2008-
100% ext4 filesystem Add ext4 filesystem support
04-07
Encrypted 2008-
100% Add built in encrypted file system support
Filesystems 04-07
Fast X start up and Increase response time to 1 second from exec to 2008-
100%
shutdown accepting clients 04-11
2008-
100% Firefox 3 Upgrade to Firefox 3
04-10
Make Identity, Policy and Audit centrally and more 2008-
100% Free IPA
easily managed 04-07
2008-
100% gcc4.3 Update Fedora to gcc 4.3
03-12
Update to new upstream Gnome Desktop Manager 2008-
100% gdm
(gdm) 04-09
Gvfs is a userspace virtual filesystem with backends
2008-
100% Gvfs for things like sftp, ftp, dav, smb, obexftp, etc. It is
03-17
the replacement/successor of gnome-vfs
2008-
100% jigdo Provide jigdo support for obtaining Fedora
03-15
2008-
100% KDE4 Replace KDE3.5 with 4.0 and upgrade modules
04-16
2008-
100% Live Persistence Live USB images persist between booting
04-08
More Expand the situations in which NetworkManager 2008-
100%
NetworkManager can be used and make it more robust 03-19
Proper support of GSM and CDMA mobile
NetworkManager broadband cards in NetworkManager, including 2008-
100%
Mobile Broadband first-class device support like Ethernet and WiFi 03-19
devices
2008-
100% PackageKit Provide alternative package management system
04-06
2008-
100% Partition Resizing Partition resizing at install time
04-07
2008-
100% perl5.10 Update perl in Fedora 9 to 5.10.0
03-10
Allow users to depsolve and download only the pkgs
2008-
100% Pre Upgrade they need to upgrade their distro while using the
04-10
older version
Use the capabilities offered by the Xrandr X 2008-
100% Randr Support
extension throughout the desktop 04-09
100% Second Stage Install Move install selection to second stage of installer 2008-
 Source 04-07
2008-
100% TeXLive Replace teTeX with TeXLive
04-10
2008-
100% Update X Server Update X server to at least version 1.5
04-11
Replacement for SysVinit that allows service 2008-
100% Upstart
management and event-driven initialization 04-09
Extend remote authentication to use Kerberos and 2008-
100% Virtual Authentication
PAM 03-15
Virtual Manager 2008-
100% Enable virt-manager to run as a unpriveledged user
PolicyKit 03-15
Replacing the current forward-ported XenSource
2008-
100% Xen paravirt_ops code in kernel-xen with the paravirt_ops based
04-07
implementation from upstream
Introducing and ensuring that all the applications
2008-
100% XULRunner that need only the Gecko browser engine are using
04-10
XULRunner

Fedora 9 Proposed Features

• The status of proposed features is at the Features Dashboard
• The deadline for proposing and completing new features is the Feature Freeze on
the Fedora schedule
• Features proposed, but not yet accepted for Fedora 9 are here:
Category:ProposedFedora9
• Not proposed for a specific release: Category:ProposedFeature

Feature Process
• The process for adding, proposing, and accepting new features into Fedora is
here: Feature Process.
 LINUX vs. WINDOWS
Flavors:
Both Windows and Linux come in many flavors. All the flavors of Windows come from
Microsoft, the various distributions of Linux come from different companies (i.e.
Linspire, Red Hat, SuSE, Ubuntu, Xandros, Knoppix, Slackware, Lycoris, etc. ).

Windows has two main lines. The older flavors are referred to as "Win9x" and consist of
Windows 95, 98, 98SE and Me. The newer flavors are referred to as "NT class" and
consist of Windows NT3, NT4, 2000, XP and Vista.

The flavors of Linux are referred to as distributions (often shortened to "distros"). All the
Linux distributions released around the same time frame will use the same kernel (the
guts of the Operating System). They differ in the add-on software provided, GUI, install
process, price, documentation and technical support. Both Linux and Windows come in
desktop and server editions. Linux is customizable in a way that Windows is not.

Graphical User Interface

Both Linux and Windows provide a GUI and a command line interface. The Windows
GUI has changed from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 (drastically) to Windows 2000
(slightly) to Windows XP (fairly large) and is slated to change again with the next
version of Windows, Linux typically provides two GUIs, KDE and Gnome.

Text Mode Interface

This is also known as a command interpreter. Windows users sometimes call it a
DOS prompt. Linux users refer to it as a shell. Each version of Windows has a single
command interpreter, but the different flavors of Windows have different
interpreters.

Cost
For desktop or home use, Linux is very cheap or free, Windows is expensive. For
server use, Linux is very cheap compared to Windows. Microsoft allows a single copy
of Windows to be used on only one computer. In contrast, once you have purchased
Linux, you can run it on any number of computers for no additional charge.
Comparison of Windows and Linux
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For a broader comparison of closed source and open source software, see Comparison of
open source and closed source.
This article may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help by adding relevant internal links, or by improving the article's layout.
(July 2008)
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (October 2007)

Comparison of the Microsoft Windows and operating systems based on the Linux
kernel is a common topic of discussion among their users. Windows is the most
prominent closed source operating system, while Linux based distributions are the most
prominent operating systems that are free software (note that many Linux distributions
also have a small amount of proprietary components, such as compiled binary blob
drivers provided by hardware manufacturers, for their default installation.[1]) The two
operating systems compete for user-base in the personal computer market as well as the
server market, and are used in government offices, schools, business offices, homes,
intranet and internet servers, supercomputers, and embedded systems.

Windows dominates in the desktop and personal computer markets with about 90% of the
desktop market share, and accounted for about 66% of all servers sold (not used) in the
year 2007.[2] In server revenue market share (2007Q4) Windows achieved 36.3% and
Linux achieved 12.7%.[3] As of November 2007, Linux powered 85% of the world's most
powerful supercomputers, compared to Windows' 1.4%.[4] In February 2008, Linux
powered five of the ten most reliable internet hosting companies, compared to Windows'
two.[5]

Linux and Windows differ in philosophy, cost, ease of use, versatility, and stability, with
each seeking to improve in their perceived weak areas. Comparisons of the two tend to
reflect the origins, historic user base and distribution model of each. Typically, some
major areas of perceived weaknesses regularly cited have included the poor “out-of-box”
usability of the Linux desktop for the mass-market and susceptibility to malware for
Windows. Both are areas of rapid development in both fields.

Proponents of free software argue that the key strength of Linux is that it respects what
they consider to be the users' essential freedoms: the freedom to run it, to study and
change it, and to redistribute copies with or without changes.

Contents
[hide]
 • 1 Total cost of ownership
• 2 Market share
• 3 User interface
• 4 Installation
• 5 Accessibility and usability
• 6 Stability
• 7 Performance
• 8 Support
• 9 Programs
o 9.1 Gaming
• 10 Security
o 10.1 Filesystem Permissions
 10.1.1 Linux and Unix-like systems
 10.1.2 Windows
• 11 Localization
• 12 See also

• 13 References

[edit] Total cost of ownership

See also: Studies related to Microsoft

In 2004, Microsoft launched a marketing campaign named "Get the Facts" to encourage
users to switch from Linux to Windows Server System.[6] Microsoft claims that its
products have an overall lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than open source programs
because of their ease of use, resulting in less work and lower staff wages.[7] However,
these statistics fail to account for the increased cost of malware protection and loss of
productivity from malware that hit Windows machines preferentially.[6]

Microsoft's figures are disputed by a variety of organizations, notably Novell and The
Register.[8] Some websites suggest that some common inaccuracies in Microsoft's figures
stem from including figures for the Unix and Solaris operating systems with figures for
Linux.[9]

In 2004, The UK Advertising Standards Authority warned Microsoft that an

advertisement using research that claimed “Linux was […] 10 times more expensive than
Windows Server 2003”, was “misleading”, as the hardware chosen for the Linux server
was needlessly expensive.[10]

The German foreign ministry said that the cost of open source desktop maintenance is by
far the lowest it experienced.[11]

[edit] Market share

The market share of Linux or Windows is difficult to determine as the former is usually
not required to register their copies; additionally, a large number of illegal copies of
Windows exist. The above desktop usage share data is estimated from web browser user
agent strings, rather than sales information or surveys. This is not entirely reliable
because, among other things, web browsers do not always provide accurate information
to web servers, and different sites attract different audiences that may be more prone to
using one OS or another: such bias is very difficult to eliminate. (However, most servers
are unlikely to be included in this measurement due to their traditional role as dedicated
computer machines). More estimates are available at Usage share of desktop operating
systems.

Windows Linux Notes

Estimated As of December 2008, As of December 2008,
Desktop 88.68%[12] 0.85%[12]
Usage
Share
Pre- Pre-installed by default on Pre-installed by default on Microsoft's
installation almost all new desktop PCs very few new desktop PCs. agreement with
However, Ubuntu is now vendors to sell
available on all System76 only the
computers, some Dell Windows
computers, and SUSE Linux operating
Enterprise Desktop on some system is being
Lenovo ThinkPads.[13] challenged in
Recently many more Linux- court by French
based low-end consumer consumer rights
laptops have been introduced. groups.[15]
[14]

See also: Comparison

of Subnotebooks

[edit] User interface

Windows Linux Notes
Graphical
user
interface

The Windows Shell on

Windows Vista The GNOME Desktop
Environment
The Windows Shell. This
uses as its window manager
 the Desktop Window A number of desktop
Manager on Windows Vista, environments are available, of
and a Stacking window which GNOME and KDE are
manager built on top of GDI the most widely used. By
in older versions. The default, they use as their
desktop environment may be window managers Metacity
modified by a variety of and KWin respectively, though
third party products such as these can be replaced by other
WindowBlinds; or window managers such as
completely replaced, for Compiz Fusion. Other desktop
example by Blackbox for environments and window
Windows, or LiteStep. managers include
Enlightenment, Xmonad, Xfce,
Openbox, Fluxbox, etc. See
Also: Comparison of X
Window System desktop
environments.
Command- A command-
line line interface,
interface typically
displayed in a
system console,
allows users to
tell the
computer to
perform tasks
A sample Bash session ranging from
A sample Windows the simple (for
PowerShell session Linux is strongly integrated example,
with the system console. The copying a file)
The Command Prompt exists command line can be used to to the complex
for power users. The recover the system if the (compiling and
command line can be used to graphics subsystem fails.[16][17] installing new
recover the system if the A large number of Unix shells software).
graphics subsystem fails. A exists; with the majority being Shells are
.NET-based command line "Bourne shell compatible" powerful but
environment called shells, of which the most can be
Windows PowerShell has widely used is GNU Bash. confusing to
been developed. It varies Alternatives include the new users.
from Unix/Linux shells in feature-full Z shell; as well as Some complex
that, rather than using byte shells based on the syntax of tasks are more
streams, the PowerShell other programming languages, easily
pipeline is an object such as the C shell, and Perl accomplished
pipeline; that is, the data Shell. Many applications can through shells
passed between cmdlets are be scripted through the system than through a
fully typed objects. When
 GUI, such as
data is piped as objects, the console,[18] there are a lot of piping, or
elements they encapsulate small and specialized utilities scripting. See
retain their structure and meant to work together and to also:
types across cmdlets, integrate with other programs. Comparison of
without the need for any This is called the toolbox computer
serialization or explicit principle. shells.
parsing of the stream.
Cygwin provides a UNIX-
like terminal for Windows.
Windows Script Host is
included in Windows 98 and
newer versions.

[edit] Installation
This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve
the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (May 2008)
Windows Linux Notes
[21][22][23]
Ease of Install On Windows Server 2003 Varies greatly by
and prior, the installation is distribution. Most
divided into two stages; the distributions intended for
first text-mode, the second new or intermediate users
graphical.[19] On Windows provide simple graphical
Vista and newer, the installer.
installation is single stage,
and graphical. General purpose oriented
distributions offer a live CD
Some older versions require or GUI installer
third party drivers (for (SuSE,Debian,Pardus,
example, by using driver Pclinuxos, Mandriva,
floppies disks or Ubuntu, Fedora etc.), others
slipstreaming the drivers and offer a menu-driven installer
creating a new installation (Vector Linux, Slackware,
CD) if using a large number Debian) while others,
of SATA or SATA2 drives targeting more specialized
or RAID arrays.[20] groups, require source to be
copied and compiled
(Gentoo). The system can
also be built completely
from scratch, directly from
source code (Linux from
Scratch).
Install time Varies based on version Differs heavily depending Please see
installed, hardware on distribution. Is generally footnotes for
 configuration, and whether around 20-40 minutes for Ease of Install.
it's an update or clean general-use distributions like
installation. Typically ranges Ubuntu.[citation needed] In case of "Installation
from about 20 minutes to source-based distributions, time" can be
about an hour.[24][25] installation may take up to measured
days. differently
depending on
what actions
are included:
installing the
base OS,
additional
drivers, OS
updates, and/or
applications.
Drivers Often drivers must be Most device drivers are
installed separately[citation included and as a result
needed]
. If not included in common hardware tends to
install media they must be "Just Work" without
provided by manufacturer. additional installation steps.
The Windows installation These drivers are generally
media usually contains written by someone working
enough drivers to make the for the hardware
OS functional. To this end, manufacturer or by someone
"generic" drivers may be in the user community
used to provide basic skilled in doing so; usually
functionality. Drivers for the drivers are included in
these devices can later be the kernel (open-source).
upgraded from the Some devices (e.g. graphics
manufacturer. Windows cards, wireless adapters) do
Update may also contain not have open-source drivers
updated drivers that can be available due to licensing
installed after the base OS is issues, but proprietary
in place. Drivers are almost drivers are sometimes
always closed-source, available for download from
maintained and published by manufacturers or special
the manufacturer of their archives. Some devices
respective devices. allow using Windows
drivers via a "wrapper"
utility. For some devices no
usable drivers are available,
but that is also true for
Windows and all other
operating systems. Most
special-purpose drivers must
be compiled by the user
 manually. Time has been
invested in centralizing and
automating some driver
installation through a
package manager.
Installation May be installed through the Almost all Linux
via Live Windows Preinstallation distributions now have a live
Environments Environment or BartPE. CD that may be used for
However, only the former is install or recovery.[26] In
endorsed by Microsoft. Only addition, the live CD can
Microsoft-certified System also be used for custom
Builders (OEM companies) partition setups. Installing
are allowed to use the from a Linux live CD allows
WinPE disk for installation, a PC to be configured to
by license. End-users do not boot from several different
have a license to use the OS's, to include Windows.
WinPE installation There are no license
environment. restrictions on its use.
Pre-installed Some multimedia and home All main distributions Microsoft's
software use software (IE, Media contain numerous programs: methods of
Player, Notepad, WordPad, multimedia, graphics, bundling
Paint…) plus OEM bundled internet, office suites, software were
software. Windows Vista games, system utilities and deemed illegal
Includes IE7, Windows alternative desktop in the case
Mail, Windows Media environments. Some United States
Center, etc. depending on distributions specialise in v. Microsoft.[27]
which edition is purchased. education, games, or
It does not include Office security. Most distributions
suites or advanced give users the choice of
multimedia software. which bundled programs to
install, if any.
Not pre- A large pool of both A large pool of free software
installed proprietary software and some proprietary
software (including shareware and software. Ports of
freeware) and free software. proprietary Windows
Programs usually come with software also exist. Using
the required libraries and are free Windows-compatibility
normally installed easily. layers like Wine, a large
Most programs must be number of Windows
individually installed. software can also be run on
Linux. Third-party software
Deinstallation is equally is usually listed/integrated
easy, but components and into a packaging system,
registry entries can be left which is built into the OS.
behind if a program has been Other programs can be
equipped with an older installed easily. Some
 programs are only provided
uninstaller. Windows has a as source code, and must be
built-in installer program, compiled before installation,
and software that is to be but that's true for Windows
installed has an installer and many other operating
"wrapper" that interfaces systems, too.
with the Windows Installer
to accomplish installation.
Partitioning Expanding NTFS partitions Some file systems support
is possible without resizing partitions without
problems, and on Vista it is losing data. LVM and
possible to shrink partitions EVMS provide dynamic
as well. Dynamic Disks partitioning. All Linux
provide dynamic distributions have bundled
partitioning. Third party partitioning software such as
tools are available that have fdisk or gparted
more features than the built-
in partitioning tools.
File systems Natively supported: NTFS, Natively supported: ext2, Windows can
FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, and ext3, ext4, ReiserFS, FAT, read and write
others; 3rd-party drivers ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, and with Ext2 and
available for ext2, ext3, others; many additional Ext3 file
reiserfs, HFS, and others filesystems (including NTFS systems with
using NTFS-3g) are third-party
available using FUSE. drivers such as
Archives and FTP sites also FS-driver or
can be mounted as ext2fsd; and
filesystems. ReiserFS
through rfstool
and related
programs.
Boot Loader May boot to multiple May boot to multiple
operating systems through operating systems through
the Windows Boot Manager, LILO or GRUB. With these,
in Windows Vista and it is possible to choose
newer; or the Microsoft boot between multiple installed
loader, NTLDR, in kernel images at boottime.
Windows Server 2003 and Graphical configuration
prior. Numerous graphical tools for GRUB are
configuration tools are available including
available, such as EasyBCD KGRUBEditor[28] (KDE) and
for the Windows Boot GrubConf [29] (GNOME).
Manager and MSConfig for GRUB can also be
NTLDR. Does not generally configured at boottime via
allow booting to any OS the GRUB prompt. GRUB
other than a Windows and LILO also support
 installation or DOS. booting to non-Unix
operating systems via chain
loading; and thus for a
Windows and Linux dual-
boot System, it is easiest to
install Windows first and
then Linux.

Linux distributions were said to be difficult for the average user to install. However
distributions like Ubuntu include graphical package managers which assist the user in
searching for packages and installing them graphically (e.g., Adept Package Manager).
By use of package managers the need of downloading software (open source) from
official site saves time as there is no need of surfing web pages as the downloading,
installing, resolving dependencies, conflicts are handled by the package manager.[30]
Today, most distributions have simplified the installation and offer a “Live CD” system
allowing users to boot fully functional Linux systems directly from a CD or DVD with
the option of installing them on the hard drive, this enables a user to evaluate a
distribution with no permanent modification to their computer.

The Windows install process and most general-use Linux distributions use a wizard to
guide users through the install process.

[edit] Accessibility and usability

A study released in 2003 by Relevantive AG indicates that “The usability of Linux as a
desktop system was judged to be nearly equal to that of Windows XP”.[31]

Windows Linux Notes

User Focus Mostly consistent.
Inconsistencies appear
primarily through backports
- software ported from
newer operating systems to
older ones. For example,
software ported from Vista
to XP, or from XP to
Windows 2000/98, must
follow the guidelines of the
newer system (IE7 and
Windows Media Player 11
are examples of this).[32]
However, Microsoft
continually pushes for
consistency between
releases with guidelines for
interface design. The latest
The quality of graphical
design varies between
desktop environments and
distributions. The two
biggest desktop
environments (GNOME and
KDE) have clearly defined
interface guidelines, which
tend to be followed
consistently and clearly.[34]
[35]
These provide
consistency and a high grade
of customizability in order
to adapt to the needs of the
user. Distributions such as
Ubuntu, SuSE, Fedora or
Mandriva take this one step
further, combining well-
 are Windows Vista User functioning usability and
Experience guidelines.[33] safety. However,
Their focus is on inconsistencies may appear,
consistency and usability, since GNOME-based
but with increased concern programs, following
for safety in new versions. different guidelines, look
Third-party applications notably different from KDE
may or may not follow these programs. There are other
guidelines, may have their environments/window
own guidelines, or may not managers, usually targeting
follow any rules for professionals or minimalist
interface design. users, featuring some very
powerful programs with
rudimentary, minimalist
graphical front-ends,
focusing much more on
performance, small size and
safety. WindowMaker and
the
Fluxbox/Openbox/Blackbox
environments are such
examples. Some other
environments fit between
the two models, giving both
power, eye candy and
simplicity
(Enlightenment/E17, Xfce).
Some graphical
environments are targeted to
mouse users only (Fluxbox),
others to keyboard users
only (Ratpoison), others to
either. Certain graphical
environments are also
designed to be as resource-
conservative as possible, so
as to run on older machines.
Consistency User interaction with Consistency can be poor
between software is usually between distributions,
versions consistent between versions, versions, window
releases, and editions. managers/desktop
environments, and
programs. Software is
generally highly user-
customizable, and the user
may keep the customizations
 between versions.
Consistency All Microsoft software Highly consistent within Though
between follows the same guidelines KDE and GNOME. Windows' GDI
applications for GUI, although not all However the vast amount of and most
software developed for additional software that widget toolkits
Windows by third parties comes with a distribution is in Linux allow
follows these GUI sourced from elsewhere; it for applications
guidelines. As stated above, may not follow the same to be created
backports tend to follow the GUI guidelines or it may with a custom
guidelines from the newer cause inconsistencies (e.g. look and feel,
operating system. different look and feel most
between programs built with applications on
different widget toolkits). both platforms
simply use the
default look
and feel.
However, there
are exceptions
like FL Studio
for Windows,
and LMMS for
Linux.
Customization Source code may, in theory, All of the kernel source code
be purchased for is freely available for
modification in some modification.
circumstances (restrictive),
or third-party tools may
create modifications. In
practice, the availability of
Windows source code is
generally heavily restricted
or extremely expensive, if
available at all. However,
even where source is
available, modification to
the operating system can
break the EULA, and in turn
be prohibited or even illegal.
Accessibility Both Windows and Linux offer accessibility options,[36] such as high
contrast displays and larger text/icon size, text to speech and magnifiers.

[edit] Stability
Windows Linux Notes
General Windows variants based on The kernel technically Instability can
stability the NT kernel (Windows inherits the stability of be caused by
NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista) UNIX due to its modular poorly written
are technically much more architecture (acknowledged programs,
stable than earlier versions to be stable)[who?]. Linux aside from
(95, 98, 98 SE, ME). terminal emulators and intrinsic OS
Installing unsigned or beta frontend “Window stability.
drivers can lead to decreased Managers” stabilities vary Software
system stability. widely, but are generally crashes,
Mechanisms to terminate stable[citation needed]. however, can
badly behaving applications Mechanisms to terminate usually be
exist at multiple levels, such badly behaving applications recovered
as Task Manager. exist at multiple levels, such without
as Ksysguard. Because restarting the
• Note - Since it is Linux can use a text based entire
noted that a graphics system if the graphics operating
system failure in system fails,[16][17] the system, and
Linux will drop to graphics system can be losing data
the textual OS level, easily restarted following a from other
Vista's graphical crash without a whole applications.
recovery abilities system reboot. Most Linux
should also be noted. distributions also provide a
On Vista even if the Live Distro, which can be
Video system fails, used to repair a completely
from driver unbootable OS.
failure/crash to even
video hardware
failure, Vista can
recover by restarting
the graphical system,
driver, or transfer the
GUI to another video
device if available,
without closing
applications running
in the graphical
system, giving the
user a prompt that
Vista recovered from
a Display problem,
without the user
losing data or access
to applications in the
GUI. Even DirectX
games running when
a failure happens are
often able to be
 recovered based on
the DirectX version
the game uses. So
even though Vista is
'limited' to a
graphical interface,
the recovery of the
Video subsystem is
something not found
in Linux or other
OSes.
Device Driver Device drivers are provided Device drivers are Crashes can be
stability by Microsoft or written by sometimes reverse caused by
the hardware manufacturer. engineered to work for hardware
Microsoft also runs a Linux. Some vendors problems or
Certification program. contribute to free drivers poorly written
(Intel, HP etc.) or provide device drivers.
proprietary drivers (Nvidia,
ATI etc.). Specifically
designed server lines exist.
Some Windows drivers can
also be used (mostly
wireless drivers using the
ndiswrapper framework).
Downtime Reboots are usually required Linux itself needs to restart
after system and driver only for kernel updates.[38]
updates, and are However, a special utility
occasionally needed for can be used to load the new
software installations if the kernel and execute it
installer wishes to overwrite without a hardware reset
a file that is being used by (kexec) and hence can stay
critical running program. up for years without
Microsoft has its rebooting. N.B. Ksplice
[37]
hotpatching technology, allows the linux kernel to be
designed to reduce patched without a reboot.
downtimes.
Recovery In modern, NT-based All processes except for init
versions of Windows, and processes in D or Z state
programs that crash may be may be terminated from the
forcibly ended through the command line. In KDE
task manager by pressing applications can be closed
CTRL+SHIFT+ESC or using CTRL+ALT+ESC or
CTRL+ALT+DEL. by KSystemGuard by
pressing CTRL+ESC.
SysRQ allows low-level
 system manipulation and
crash recovery if configured.
The entire graphical
subsystem can be halted
with
CTRL+ALT+Backspace
without the need for a whole
system shutdown. Reboots
are seldom required.[39][40]

Additionally, Live CDs of

Linux, if equipped with the
correct tools, can work to
repair a broken OS as long
as it can mount the hard
drive.[41]
Unrecoverable If the kernel or a driver The Unix equivalent of the
errors running in kernel mode Windows blue screen is
encounters an error under known as a kernel panic.
circumstances whereby The kernel routines that
Windows cannot continue to handle panics are usually
operate safely, a "bug designed to output an error
check" (colloquially known message to the console,
as a "stop error" or "Blue create a memory dump, and
Screen of Death") is thrown. then either wait for the
A memory dump is created system to be restarted or
and, depending on the restart automatically.
configuration, the computer
may then automatically
restart. Additionally,
automatic restart can be
applied to services.
Available from Windows
NT4, 2000, and later. Not
present in the Windows 9x
Hardware (95/98) line of Operating
Available in most Linux
Abstraction Systems. The Hardware
distributions.
Layer Abstraction Layer serves as
a buffer between the kernel
of the operating system and
the physical hardware.

For an operating system to be subjectively “stable”, numerous components must operate

synchronously. Not all of these components are under the control of OS vendor; while
Linux and Windows kernels may be stable, poorly written applications and drivers can
hamstring both. Much of stability, then, is the extent to which the operating system is
structured to thwart the consequences of bad behavior by third party installations.

Much of the reputation Windows has for instability can be traced to Windows 95, 98, and
ME, which were notorious for displaying the blue screen of death (BSOD) upon crashing.
Three weaknesses with these particular Windows versions increased the likelihood such a
crash would occur:

• Full 16-bit compatibility. When memory management of the DOS subsystem

failed, it would often prompt a BSOD. Windows NT has no true 16-bit support; it
emulates it in a virtual sandbox. The 64 bit versions even lack this emulation.
• Direct hardware access. Unlike Windows NT, Windows 9x had no hardware
abstraction layer. A program or driver that attempted to access protected memory,
or interfaced poorly with the hardware, could cause a BSOD.
• Poor DLL management. DLLs are external libraries of functions that prevent
unnecessary repetition in a program. Windows 9x had no protections on system
DLLs, and poorly written programs would often overwrite them at will with
incorrect versions. Over time, the general stability of the system would decrease.
Windows 2000 and later versions have a routine called Windows File Protection
that prevents the replacement of important system files.

These are not the exclusive causes of instability, but their correction in the Windows NT
codebase has dramatically improved the stability of all subsequent Windows variants:
Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003 and Vista.

[edit] Performance
Windows Linux
Process NT-based versions of Windows use a Linux kernel 2.6 once used a
Scheduling CPU scheduler based on a multilevel scheduling algorithm favoring
feedback queue, with 32 priority interactive processes. Here
levels defined. The kernel may "interactive" is defined as a process
change the priority level of a thread that has short bursts of CPU usage
depending on its I/O and CPU usage rather than long ones. It is said that
and whether it is interactive (i.e. a process without root privilege
accepts and responds to input from can take advantage of this to
humans), raising the priority of monopolize the CPU,[44] when the
interactive and I/O bounded CPU time accounting precision is
processes and lowering that of CPU low. However, Completely Fair
bound processes, to increase the Scheduler, addresses this problem.
responsiveness of interactive
applications.[42]

The scheduler was modified in

Windows Vista to use the cycle
counter register of modern
 processors to keep track of exactly
how many CPU cycles a thread has
executed, rather than just using an
interval-timer interrupt routine.[43]
Memory Windows NT and its variants employ Most hard drive installations of
Management/ a dynamically allocated pagefile for Linux utilize a "swap partition",
Disk Paging memory management. A pagefile is where the disk space allocated for
allocated on disk, for less frequently paging is separate from general
accessed objects in memory, leaving data, and is used strictly for paging
more RAM available to actively used operations. This reduces slowdown
objects. This scheme suffers from due to disk fragmentation from
slow-downs due to disk general use. As with Windows, for
fragmentation, which hampers the best performance the swap
speed at which the objects can be partition should be placed on a
brought back into memory when they hard drive separate from the
are needed. Windows can be primary one.
configured to place the pagefile on a
separate partition; doing this negates
the disk-fragmentation issues, but
introduces an I/O slowdown due to
the seek time involved in switching
back and forth between the two
partitions.[45] However, the main
reason this is not done by default is
that, if the pagefile is on a separate
partition, then Windows cannot
create a memory dump in the event
of a Stop Error.[46] The ideal solution
performance-wise is to have the
pagefile on a separate hard drive to
the primary one, which eliminates
both defragmentation and I/O issues.
Corrections *Note - Vista no longer over utilizes *Note - Many newer hard drives
Needed pagefile as previous versions of NT, do not allocate partitions in
and can easily run without one. Also contiguous regions, so even a
the 'implications' that a pagefile on separate partition can be
NT is going to be fragmented is also fragmented on drive provisioning.
a dated concept, as the pagefile Also see note to the left, as
usually doesn't grow, can be set to a partition location on the hard drive
static size, and XP and Vista both can reduce performance if put in a
have the ability to defrag the pagefile lower speed position.
if it has dynamically allocated more
space causing fragmentation. The
pagefile fragmentation issue with NT
is more of a myth because it never
 required a separate partition. Even in
major pagefile 'growth' NT attempts
to allocate contiguous space so this
presents a situation where you have 1
or 2 fragementations in the pagefile,
which is not even a 10ms loss in
performance. Having the pagefile on
a 'separate' physical hard drive than
the OS will offer better performance,
but moving the pagefile to a separate
partition on the same physical hard
drive is not recommended. Just
creating a separate partition on the
same hard drive will often create the
partition in an area that the hard
drive has lower read/write speed due
to the design of hard drive varying in
performance based on data location.

[edit] Support
This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (November 2008)
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information
might be found on the talk page. (March 2007)
Windows Linux Notes
Community Microsoft Developer Most support is provided by There are
support Network (MSDN), and advanced users and many paid
multitudes of user driven developers over online local Windows
support forums are available forums, and other free techs. Fewer
at no charge. Additional community based venues. for Linux.
support is available by 3rd Professional support is
party services. available, but most Most OEM's
commonly only utilized by offer support
large-scale businesses, and along with
server dependent their products,
organizations. which include
both hardware
and software
technical
support.
Phone support By Microsoft or OEM. Red Hat, Canonical, Novell
and other major distributors
have support available as

Documentation A Wealth of information is
available free online, or in
books, as well as on
Microsoft's own support
page.
Many IT courses are written
for participants to learn how needed]
to use and manage
Windows systems and
Training
networks. Most computer
assistance experts have
Windows training and
qualifications.
Third Party As Windows has the
Documentation majority of the market
share, virtually all producers no instructions to install or
of software and hardware use software. Indeed, some
well.
Most documentation is
available online, either in
FAQ form or Wiki pages on
developers websites.
Detailed documentation for
specific commands,
programs, functions,
libraries, files, and file
formats are available
through the man pages,
which are accessed through
the command line, or
through graphical viewers.
Some major distributions
have books written by 3rd
party authors, mainly for
server admins, or
application development.
Linux strongly dominates
many computing university
courses[citation needed] in
programming and computer
science due to the typical
"hands on" nature of Linux's
descendant distributions and
general likeability in the
terms of programming[citation
. Students can and often
do get the opportunity to
create their own stripped
down Linux
distribution[citation needed], and
modify it as they please.
Linux diplomas and
certificates are rarely
offered. Courses for
certifications are provided
by Linux Professional
Institute and some
distributions, such as Red
Hat and Ubuntu.
Virtually all products ignore
the Linux platform, giving
 will give Windows specific
Linux laptops have shipped
instructions for the
with Windows
installation and operation of
documentation.
their programs and drivers.

[edit] Programs
This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (December 2007)
Windows Linux Notes
Emulation Cygwin or Interix and its Cedega, CrossOver, and
successor SUA may be Wine can be used to run
used to compile programs some Windows programs
dependent on Linux on Linux with varying
libraries, but neither can degrees of reliability.
be used to run Linux While these programs
binaries. Whether full technically do not emulate
ABI compatibility for Windows, and instead
open-source software is provide an alternate
actually needed, however, Windows API, the
is debatable. practical effect is the
same.
Virtualization VMware, VirtualBox, VMware, VirtualBox, With virtualization
Virtual PC, Virtual Xen, Parallels, Linux- you may run an
Server, Hyper-V (only VServer, QEMU, User- operating system
available on Windows mode Linux, OpenVZ, within another
Server 2008), Parallels, Win4Lin, KVM operating system.
QEMU on new hardware
Package Modern versions of Most distributions have a PM simplifies the
management Windows rely on the package manager, often process of installing
system Windows Installer as their based upon RPM, APT, or new software,
package manager. This Gentoo Ebuild updating it, and
registers what components metapackages (source). managing
are installed where on the Sometimes an installation dependencies (See
user's system. The can have a second Dependency hell).
Windows package package management In Linux
management system system which is distributions the
depends on software incompatible with the type of package
vendors following certain primary system. manager is pre-
guidelines. However, Numerous distribution- determined by what
many applications are still specific front-ends exist the distribution was
deployed with alternative on top of the core formats originally derived
installers. One example is allowing for GUI or from though more
NSIS. Applications are command-line package modern
typically installed into the installation e.g. aptitude, distributions can
 Program Files directory Synaptic, Portage, YaST import other
by an executable file. and YUM. Though rare, package formats.
some distributions create
their own formats e.g.
Pardus PiSi or Pacman.
Most package managers
have a form of package
signing usually based on
PGP e.g. OpenPGP for
Debian packages. It is also
possible to create a GUI
installation package not
depending on the
distributions by using
Autopackage. Software
can also be compiled from
source code, which does
not require any kind of
package-management
system. However,
compiling software from
its source code can be
time-consuming and
difficult.
Adding New Thousands of programs In addition to website
Programs are available for download downloads, thousands of
from many websites and programs are available
for purchase on CD/DVD from repositories
in retail shops. maintained by each
distribution and are
Programs must be generally considered
downloaded (or purchased "trusted" and require
on CD/DVD) and review before new
installed individually. additions will be accepted.
Access to the repositories
is usually without cost.

The package manager

automatically handles
download and installation
of selected packages, and
automatically upgrades or
patches software when a
newer version appears in
the repository. For some
distributions, however, it's
 normal not to update the
applications released
together with the
distribution to new
versions. In these cases,
only security updates are
provided.[47] Third-party
software rarely (if ever)
contains
adware/spyware/viruses,
and does not require as
much discretion in that
regard.
Updates • Windows Update • The Package Gentoo goes further
handles only manager handles and allows different
updates to updates for versions of software
Microsoft software software that was and libraries to be
and can deploy installed via the installed in separate
driver updates if package manager. “SLOTS” so a
present on system can have
Windows update • Generally, updates different versions of
site. generally do not the same software
• Some third party require a system installed.
software has its restart, with the GoboLinux uses a
own separate exception of radically different
update manager. kernel updates. approach where
• Windows Installer However, there are "the filesystem is
(See Package multiple ways the package
management around this, and it manager" which
system above) is possible to load allows even
does not manage the kernel into different versions of
updates. memory, update it, a program to be run
and commit to concurrently.[48]
• Windows security memory Ksplice.
updates typically Updates to X may
require a restart. require restarting
X (for example, by
logging out and
back in again) to
take effect.
Cross- • A great many • Few programs are Some companies,
platform programs are written with such as Id software,
(software) written with Linux-specific make versions of
Windows-specific frameworks. their products to
frameworks due to Those that are work on both
 its market usually have a Windows and
dominance. Windows port. Linux. These
• Compatibility programs are
• Source between Unix-like generally not
compatibility with operating systems dependent on either
some UNIX (such as BSD framework. Instead,
programs is done Unix, Solaris, and the installation is
via POSIX Mac OS X) such that there is an
subsystem through various "interpreter" layer
(Windows NT and standards, such as and the actual
2000), or the POSIX thread program binary
Subsystem for standard. files. The
UNIX applications interpreter layer
(formerly Interix) • Wine allows some runs on-the-fly to
(2000, XP, 2003, Windows deliver the
Vista). programs to run on appropriate
Linux, including program experience
graphic-heavy to whichever
games like "Elder platform is running.
Scrolls IV : Using this method,
Oblivion", software can be
although created independent
sometimes with of the platform, and
some glitches. only the interpreter
layer needs to be
configured for the
OS.
Cross- • Many Microsoft • The GNU Software that is
platform libraries have not toolchain has been written in cross-
(development) been ported to ported on platform languages
other operating Windows, as well and frameworks are
systems as GTK, Qt and usually easily
many other ported.
• Many of libraries.
Microsoft's
frameworks can be • Many projects
replaced by already have
counterparts in Windows builds
other operating
systems
Cross- Windows client and server i386, x86-64, PowerPC • Historically,
platform OS comes both in x86 and 32/64, SPARC, DEC GNU began
(hardware) x64 editions. ARM, Alpha, ARM, MIPS, PA- working on
MIPS, x86-64, SuperH are RISC, S390, IA-64, 68000 but
the target platforms for SuperH and m68k, and always had
Windows CE / Windows many PDAs and a strong
 XP Embedded. PDAs are embedded systems. multiplatfor
the target platform for m vocation.
[49]
Windows Mobile.

• The first
version of
Linux was
developed
for the i386.
Backwards Has historically been a Programs that use Linux This refers to the
Compatibility very high priority.[50] Standard Base functions backwards
between However, exceptions do will work for at least six compatibility of the
releases exist, even within years on any LSB- operating system
Microsoft's own compliant distribution.[52] between releases.
applications (particularly Non-LSB frameworks and
with respect to Windows libraries have other
Vista).[51] compatibility policies
IDEs & Several commercial IDEs Several commercial IDEs
Compilers for sale, such as and compilers for sale
Microsoft's Visual Studio. such as PGI, Intel, and
Multiple free IDEs and Absoft's Fortran
compilers, including the compilers.[53][54] Multiple
GNU Compiler free IDEs and compilers,
Collection, Eclipse, the most common of
NetBeans, Pelles C, lcc32, which are often included
Borland C++, Visual in distributions;[55]
Studio Express (Visual C+ including the GNU
+, C#, and VB.NET Compiler Collection,
compilers), .NET Eclipse, NetBeans, Mono,
compilers freely included MonoDevelop, Geany,
in .NET Framework, Anjuta, KDevelop, Free
Sharpdevelop, Free Pascal Pascal, OpenLDev,
Codeblocks

Linux distributions come with a great deal of software which can be installed for free,
with an especially large collection of computer programming software.[56] Debian comes
with more than 18,000 software packages.[55]

Microsoft has had a longstanding emphasis on backwards compatibility.[50] In general, the

Windows API is consistent over time[citation needed]; programs designed for earlier versions of
Windows often run without issues on later versions. For the sake of progress, however,
Microsoft sometimes draws a line precluding support of very old programs. That first
happened with Windows 95, where some purely 16 bit Windows 3.1 applications would
not work, and again with Windows XP, where certain mixed-bit applications would not
work. 64-bit versions of Windows (XP-64 and Vista-64) drop 16-bit support completely.
However, 16 bit emulation and the enormous array of application-specific tweaks
(“shims”) within new Windows versions[57] ensure that compatibility with old
applications remains very high.[58]

In the Linux world, the landscape differs. As most (if not all) parts of the operating
system is open source and many Linux programs are open source, when a Linux
distribution breaks backward compatibility, anyone willing might write a patch to the
operating system or the program itself that would allow the older software to work. In
reality though, since many popular Linux distributions uses software repository and all of
the most popular programs exists in the repository, the programs provided in the
repository is guaranteed to be compatible with (depends on the distros) the most recent
version of the operating system.

[edit] Gaming

A major attraction of Windows is the library of games available for purchase. The
majority of current major games natively support Windows and are released first for the
Windows platform.

Some of these games can be run on Linux with a compatibility layer like Wine or
Cedega. Others, and especially more modern games that rely on proprietary delivery
systems, copy protection, Windows dependencies, or advanced acceleration features, may
fail.[citation needed] Moreover, those that run usually have quirks that are not present on the
Windows platform. Games differ from running slightly better performance than they have
in Windows, to a 25% or worse performance cut, depending on the game.[59]

There are notable exceptions, such as id Software's Doom and Quake series. When a
developer chooses to write graphics code in OpenGL instead of DirectX, Linux ports
become much easier. In addition, games such as the Unreal Tournament series are written
in 3 parts: The core 'engine' of the game, the graphical display system, and the actual
game data itself. The first two, typically being compiled programs, require porting,
however only the graphical display system will often require much work (Windows to X
Windows, DirectX to OpenGL, etc). The third part, the game data itself, is typically
written in system-independent file formats and scripting languages. This allows the game
developer to separate the actual game experience from platform compatibility. This also
serves to reduce the cost of development in 2 ways.

• There is no need to port the game data to another platform, which eliminates the
need to compile and bug-fix the game data for each platform.
• Future releases of the software can use the same "engine" and graphical display
system. This allows game developers to focus more on the game experience, and
less on compatibility issues.

Recently, virtual machines such as VMware Workstation 5.0 have added support for
accelerated 3D graphics.
There are also numerous Open Source games designed first for Linux.[60] While most of
these are small games like Kolf or Pingus, there are also bigger games, such as Nexuiz
and Freeciv. Many have been ported to work on Windows as well.

[edit] Security
Windows Linux Notes
Malware According to Kaspersky As of 2006, more than
Lab, more than 11,000 800 pieces of Linux
malware programs for malware have been
Windows were discovered.[61] Some
discovered just in the malware has propagated
second half of 2005.[61] through the Internet.[63]
However, it is common However, in practice,
for anti-malware softare reports of bonafide
to have more than malware presence on
100,000 signatures Linux-based systems are
against which potentially extremely unheard
malicious components of[citation needed]. Nonetheless,
can be compared. Botnets anti-malware tools (such
- networks of infected as ClamAV and Panda
computers controlled by Security's DesktopSecure
malicious persons - with for Linux do exist. These
more than one million programs are mainly
computers have been intended to filter malware
witnessed.[62] Once from emails and network
malicious sofware is traffic travelling through
present on a Windows- Linux-based servers[citation
needed]
based system, it can .
sometimes be incredibly
difficult to remove. As
such, users are advised to
install and run anti-
malware programs.
Open vs. Claims its platform is Claims its platform is Microsoft claims that
Closed more secure because of a more secure because all Windows Vista is more
comprehensive approach of its code is reviewed by secure than other
to security using the so many people that bugs operating systems.[66]
Security Development are detected (referred to However, security
Lifecycle.[64][65] as Linus's law). vulnerabilities have been
found in Windows Vista.
[67]
However, due to the However, due to the
nature of closed source, nature of softwares
and softwares inherant inherant technical nature, Security issues are also
technical nature, only only programmers can fix still being reported for
company programmers bugs. Linux [68]
 can fix bugs.
Response Claims closed source Bugs can be fixed and
speed offers a faster and more rolled out within a day of
effective response to being reported (often
security issues,[69] though within hours), though
critical bug fixes are only usually it takes a few
released once a month weeks before the patch is
after extensive available on all
programming and distributions.
testing[70][71] and certain
bugs have been known to
go unpatched for months.
User In Windows Vista, all Users typically run as A malicious program
[citation
Accounts logged-in sessions (even limited accounts executed under a limited
needed]
for those of , having created both account in both Linux and
"administrator" users) run administrator (commonly Windows is limited to
with standard user called the "superuser" and that user's data. The use
permissions, preventing named "root") and at least of sudo on a Linux system
malicious programs from one user account during asks for the user's
gaining total control of install, preventing password only once for a
the system. Processes that malicious programs from set amount of time (in
request administrator gaining total control of Ubuntu, 10 minutes).
privileges can be allowed the system. Note that the During this time, the user
to run using the "User user "root" is not the is able to do anything root
Access Control" same thing as the root could do without entering
framework. In practice, level of the filesystem, a password and actually
many Windows users find indicated by "/" alone. In becoming root (assuming
this feature to be an most Linux distributions, sudo is configured this
annoyance. there are commands (su, way; the stated intent of
Consequentially, they sudo) that will sudo is for better
disable this feature, which temporarily grant security). The su
results in 1 of 2 root/administrator command requires the
consequences: privileges to processes root password every time,
that need it. In practice, and is less secure because
• No programs are the sudo command is root must have a
allowed to have generally far less of an password preassigned and
administrative annoyance and much saved. If root has no
privileges. This more secure, and password, then a cracker
prevents the therefore more commonly cannot hack root's
installation of accepted among Linux account. He would need
most software and users. In addition, a user to guess the user's
hardware. can log into the PC as the username, and then the
• All programs are "root" or temporarily password, which is much
allowed to have become root with su more secure. User Access
administrative (normal console logout Controls in Windows only
 privileges, without returns the user to normal grants administrator
prompting the permissions). No elevated privileges to the user for
user. This permissions are needed each process as a one-
prevents the user for anything when logged time-shot. Each process
from stopping a in as root. In practice, this that needs elevated
potentially can be very dangerous, as privileges spawns a new
malicious process. a simple typo error at the prompt to the user (often
command line can wipe a more than one) for the
Prior versions of hard drive clean or clear user to accept. This is the
Windows would assign the contents of system nature of the "annoyance"
administrator status to the RAM. to Windows users.
first user account created
during the setup process.
The majority of users did
not change to an account
type with fewer
rights[citation needed], meaning
that malicious programs
would have full control
over the system. A user
can log into the PC as the
Administrator account,
but User Access Controls
still prompts for elevated
privileges when trying to
do anything
"administrator-worthy."

[edit] Filesystem Permissions

Both Windows NT-based systems and Linux-based systems support permissions on their
default filesystems. The original FAT filesystem, however, does not support permissions.
This filesystem is available for use in both operating systems. Windows ME, Windows
98, Windows 95, and previous versions of Windows only operated on the FAT
filesystem, and therefore do not support permissions natively.

[edit] Linux and Unix-like systems

File system permissions on a Linux system running GNOME.

Linux—and Unix-like systems in general—have a “user, group, other” approach to

filesystem permissions at a minimum.[72] Access Control Lists are available on some
filesystems, which extends the traditional Unix-like permissions system. Security patches
like SELinux and PaX add Role-Based Access Controls, which add even finer-grained
controls over which users and programs can access certain resources or perform certain
operations. Some distributions, such as Fedora, CentOS, and Red Hat use SELinux out of
the box, although most do not.[73]

Most Linux distributions provide different user accounts for the various daemons.[74] In
common practice, user applications are run on unprivileged accounts, to provide least
user access. In some distributions, administrative tasks can only be performed through
explicit switching from the user account to the root account, using tools such as su and
sudo.

[edit] Windows

File system permissions on a Windows Vista system.

Windows NT and subsequent NT-based versions of Windows use NTFS-based Access

Control Lists to administer permissions, using tokens.[75] On Windows XP and prior
versions, most home users still ran all of their software with Administrator accounts, as
this is the default setup upon installation. The existence of software that would not run
under limited accounts and the cumbersome "Run As..." mechanism forced many users to
use administrative accounts. This gives users full read and write access to all files on the
filesystem.

Windows Vista changes this[76] by introducing a privilege elevation system called User
Account Control that works on the principle of Least user access. When logging in as a
standard user, a logon session is created and a token containing only the most basic
privileges is assigned. In this way, the new logon session is incapable of making changes
that would affect the entire system. When logging in as a user in the Administrators
group, two separate tokens are assigned. The first token contains all privileges typically
awarded to an administrator, and the second is a restricted token similar to what a
standard user would receive. User applications, including the Windows Shell, are then
started with the restricted token, resulting in a reduced privilege environment even under
an Administrator account. When an application requests higher privileges or "Run as
administrator" is clicked, UAC will prompt for confirmation and, if consent is given,
starts the process using the unrestricted token.[77]

For more information on the differences between the Linux su/sudo approach and Vista's
User Account Control, see Comparison of privilege authorization features.

[edit] Localization
It is easy to have multiple languages installed in Linux and to switch between them while
the user is logging in. Almost all applications will communicate with the user in the
selected language, because the open nature of development allows volunteer based
translations. In MS Windows, localization can be provided by a separate installation of
the operating system, or the Multilingual User Interface (MUI) can be used to provide
multiple languages on one installation. Many of the available applications for the
Windows platform lack natural language support for many languages.