Windows or Linux?
By Lazaro Alfonso
The fearless from the consumers of buying the latest operating system when it comes to market for the first time even though it could come with surprising technical problems. However, people still want to buy the latest and greatest for their computer. An example used by the author of this article is Windows 7 when it came to the market for the first time. The author mentioned all the advantages of getting Windows 7 because of its great features such as its program load, navigation pane, Library, interface, taskbar, Aero and much more improvement over Vista. He also mentions its improvement over Vista and how friendly it is for consumers. Per Farhad Manjoo, “It is arguably the fastest, most intuitive, and most useful consumer desktop OS on the market today.” I learned that Apple’s Mac operating system that came to the market and it’s one of the major competitors of Microsoft for years. The good news for Microsoft is that Windows is still at the top from the consumer’s point of view since they came up with Windows Vista. However, I think Microsoft should keep an eye on Linux too and not just Apple.
As I was reading these articles, I remembered when I first used Windows 95 many years ago and it was the best OS in the market back then. Now, Windows7 is more than half better than Windows 95 and the best on the market. Apple use to be the leader, but not anymore since years ag
o. As Farhad Manjoo stated in his article “Over the years, Apple has been the leader in offering ways to deal with a cluttered machine. But, in Windows 7, Microsoft pulls ahead.” In my opinion, Windows will be on the top of the list as one of the best operating system for many more years unless Apple or Linux come up with something better in the future. However, I don’t think Microsoft will let that happens because of their quick action by improving Windows Vista right after they noticed it was causing too many problems to consumers. Per the author, “Windows Vista, was a lead balloon; though Microsoft did move quickly to fix its multitude of flaws, Vista remain dogged by a perception that it sucks.”
Another reason that will support my point when I mentioned above that I don’t think Microsoft will let Apple or Linux to lead in the market is that Microsoft always come up with new and unique features such as Library and Aero. It’s different when you are the first one to create new features to make it easier for consumers than try to create similar features with not so friendly for consumers. Like Farhad Manjoo said “the Mac’s Smart Folders features lets you create something like Windows 7’s Libraries. But the Windows version is more customizable-and thus more useful-than the Mac’s.” Windows 7 will not be the last big change in operating system; Microsoft will surprise us again soon.
We are all familiar with Windows operating system and we all know it is one of the most popular and powerful in the world. I’ll say 95.0% of the population in the USA who have a computer at home and at work, use the famous operating system Windows. However, I think that less than 25% of the population in the USA has heard about Linux. Well, I just learned that Linux was created back in 1991 and i
t is spreading very fast that could be known as one of the best operating system in the world. According to the author, Linux has probably the world’s most ardent followers and is gaining wide spread acceptance as the leading server Operating system “Linux Operating System” (n.d.), para 1. The creator of Linux which name is Linus Torvalds released his operating system to the public under a free license and this is what is helping him to spread this OS to the world faster. Linux operating system is available for download and use for free. As the author stated on the article, to complete the operating system, Torvals and others used system components developed by the members of the Free Software Foundation for the GNU Project “Linux Operating System” (n.d.), para 5. Now-a-day, this operating system requires a minimum of a single processor and 2Mb of RAM to run the standard Linux Kernel. Also, it is expanding by distributing multi-processor support for Motorola, Silicon Graphics MIPs and Intel x86. I’m sure Linus Torvalds will continue working on this operating system to make it better and competitive with Windows by releasing new versions.
As I was ready these articles, I remember when the first operating system came to the public and it was also free for download and use, but not for too long. As soon as Windows started spreading, it was not free anymore and we had no other choice but to buy it. In my opinion, Linux could be become the biggest and strongest Windows’ competitor in the future. Process Scheduler, Memory Manager, Virtual File System, Network Interface and Inter-Process Communication are the subsystems of Linux kernel. These are very similar to Windows’ subsystems which clearly support my point mentioned above about Linux could be a potential Windows’ competitor.
I will definite get Linux Operating System for my home desktop computer and will probably get a good quality operating system as Windows 7. In Windows, I have to make sure the updates are downloaded daily to avoid any issues in the future. Well, In Linux, I have to make sure I get the latest modules and patches to keep Linux operating system with good performance. As the author stated in the article, as the kernel is the heart of any OS, changes to the kernel can affect the entire performance of the system. The Linux kernel is the core of the operating system “Linux Operating System” (n.d.), para 8. Maybe it’s a good idea to start considering Linux Operating System and start getting familiar with it. I’ll be getting ready for the future top operating system of the world ahead of time.
References:
Manjoo, Farhad (2009, October 22). Get Windows 7. Retrieved from
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2009/10/get_windows_7.2.html
Linux Operating System-History of Linux. (n.d.). Retrieve from http://www.clearleadinc.com/site/linux.html
Keizer, Gregg (2014, June 2). Windows 7 power more than half of all PCs. Retrieved from
Shepherd, Adam (2015, June 22) Windows vs Linux: What’s the best operating system? Retrieved from http://www.itpro.co.uk/operating-systems/24841/windows-vs-linux-whats-the-best-operating-system
Lunduke, Bryan (2014, March 28) Why Arguin That Windows is Better Than Linux Makes You Look Silly. Retrieved from https://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/768257-why-arguing-that-windows-is-better-than-linux-makes-you-look-silly/
Hartley, Matt (2015, January 26) Windows vs Linux: The 2015 Version. Retrieved from http://www.datamation.com/open-source/windows-vs-linux-the-2015-version-1.html
Windows or Linux? 