PROJECT ON COMPARISON

OF VARIOUS OPERATING
SYSTEMS

Prepared by:
Mr. Harish Morwani
IT Faculty
INC- Gandhinagar
Introduction to
Operating System
 “ QUOTES IN PRAISE OF
OPERATING SYSTEM”
 “An elephant is a mouse with an Operating
System.” —Knuth
 “The human mind ordinarily operates at
only ten percent of its capacity — the rest is
overhead for the operating system.” —
Nicholas Ambrose
The operating User

system is a
set of system
Application program
software
routines that Interfaces
sits between
the Operating system
application
program and
the hardware. Hardware
 Service 
• Software routine that runs in support of   
  another program. 
• Generally, a service performs single task 

•OS is a repository for common services 
•–I/O support—open, close, read, write 
•–Launch a program 
•–And so on
The operating system routines that interface
with the application program represent a
consistent platform for running application
programs.
Application program Application program

Platform

Operating system Operating system

Model ABC computer Model XYZ computer

hardware hardware
Modern OS
Application program layer

Operating system layer

User interface File Device

(shell) management management

Processor
Memory Communication
(or process)
management services
management

Hardware layer
 Application
program
The user clicks
Open
layer

Open
Operating
The shell Shell system
layer

interprets the
command File File management

management finds
the file Device Device
management

management reads
the file from disk Hardware
 Linux
vs.
Windows
 Linux
 Linux was originally built by Linus Torvalds
(as a student) at the University of Helsinki in
1991.
 The latest version of Linux is Linux 2.6.15
 Linux is a Unix-like, Kernel-based, fully
memory-protected, multi-user multitasking
operating system
 It runs on a wide range of hardware from
PCs to Macs.
 Windows
 A Product of Microsoft Corporation Ltd.
 Founders of Microsoft are Bill Gates & Paul Allen
images

(1975)
 First version of Windows – Windows 1.0 released
in 1985 by Microsoft.
 Latest version is Windows Vista (2005)
 Windows is a GUI based operating system
 It has powerful networking capabilities, is
multitasking, and extremely user friendly
THE BATTLE STARTS
Computer Users
 Computer Users Cont.
 Many beginner users find Windows easier to
use than other operating systems
 Windows has been enjoying an overall
advantage over Linux due to Microsoft’s
market success because of its broad focus
aimed at all kinds of users
 Linux has been primary used by advanced
computer users – programmers and
developers
Fundamental Differences between
Linux & Windows
One fundamental difference between the two
systems is the fact that Linux is "open source".

This means that unlike Windows where you only

get access to the compiled programs that you run
on your machine, with Linux you also get the
original computer code to examine and tweak
(modify) at your leisure.

This also goes to show that Linux users are more

advanced
 Comparing Applications
 Linux falls short in the number of different
applications available for it.
 There are much more various applications
available for Microsoft since the population
of Window’s users is greater than Linux’s
 Since Microsoft is more popular, the
Hardware products are aimed at the biggest
market – Windows, such that the product
would be sold and used widely
 Comparing Applications Cont.
 Linux programs are distributed freely since they are not
developed by commercial software companies, but instead
are created under the GNU Public License, which makes
the software free

 Linux software lacks the GUI and is therefore not “liked” by

many users

 Windows has its own share of problems – the fact that

some software is not compliant for different versions of
windows (i.e. Windows 95/98) and that many times the GUI
concept is overused such that command arguments cannot
be passed to the program
 Comparing GUI
 Linux contains X-Windows with 2 interfaces –
GNOME & KDE
 Linux offers a choice of four desktops thus
allowing the user to work in different windows
on different desktop for convenience
 FVWM2  : Feline Virtual Window Manager 
 FVWM95: FVWM with Windows 95 look and 
feel 
 GNOME : GNU Network Object Manager 
Environment 
 KDE       : K Desktop Environment 
 Comparing GUI Cont.
 Windows, on the other hand, is limited to the
way the application windows are laid out on
the screen
 Windows GUI also has been known for its
large memory requirements, where it
usually uses a huge chunk of RAM for
visual components
 Linux advantages in Kernel and the
OS environment
 Linux requires 386 architecture to run. Thus, it is
compatible with any improved architecture such as
486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, etc
 There are drivers available for much many types
of hardware devices
 Linux supports multiple copies of the Kernel on the
system such that if an error is encountered and
the Kernel becomes corrupted, a different copy of
the Kernel can be used to boot up the system
 Security
 Linux seems to be more prepared for protecting itself
because of the beginning developments of Linux, UNIX,
and FreeBSD which were aimed at top notch security
 Linux allows does not create registry keys in a way
Windows does allowing a user to browse installed
components registry keys, which contain important
information
 Linux is more virus proof since viruses – malicious
programs either cannot be run automatically on the Linux
machine, or simply are not capable of being executed on a
386 architecture
 Windows is often known for a large amount of loop holes
 Example of Windows Insecurity
 In 2005, Sony released a new kind of Digital
Rights Mgmt. (DRM) System for Windows
machines.
 When an ordinary user goes to play a Sony CD
with the DRM scheme, software from the CD is
installed into his Windows machine. This s/w has
all kind of adverse effects on the machine & when
the user tries to remove it, the act of removing
may cause the computer to have a “Blue Screen
of Death”.
 Analysis of DRM
 Ordinary users should never be allowed to
install s/w that may harm the system. On
UNIX machines this is obvious.
 The fundamental flaw in Windows is the
ability for applications to “hook” into system
service calls.
 Linux uses OS modules which have to be
explicitly loaded by the modprobe program
which can only be run by root.
 Reliability
 OS must not crash, even under extreme loads. OS
should process requests even if the operating
system or hardware fails
 Windows seems to be less stable.
Example
 It is possible to get a process which cannot be
killed without rebooting the system. Linux can find
these zombies(using ls-l command) and get rid of
them by killing their parent process without
rebooting the system
 MARKET SHARE
 Acc. To a report “NORTH AMERICAN
LINUX & WINDOWS TCO COMPARISON”

Sever OS

15% 2%

Windows
Linux
Others
73%
 Desktop OS

12% 1%

Windows
Linux
Others
87%
Conclusion
 Advantages of LINUX
Linux hardly ever crashes, mainly because the
basic low-level operating program (called the
kernel) that keeps the computer running is small.
So, even when things go wrong with some higher-
level part of the operating system or with a
program, the kernel keeps chugging away.
Linux almost never has to be rebooted after
installing a new program. This saves much
valuable user time and aggravation over the life
time of a machine.
 Advantages of LINUX
In most cases the Linux file system does not have
to be de-fragmented regularly, such as Windows
does, to keep it from slowing down.
Linux allows up to 16 different views of the
desktop. In other words, programs that are running
can be associated with different views of the
desktop; you will see only the program windows
for the desktop view of current interest. It is easy
to switch from one desktop view to another by
buttons on the task bar.
There are many free or inexpensive programs
available for Linux.
It cost less to install and operate.
 Advantages of WINDOWS
 User-friendly
 Familiarity
 Integrity
 Easy to repair
 Easy to install
 Windows NT has a more finely grained permission
system than LINUX
 Better Guaranteed Support
 Closed source OS
 Windows VISTA more secure
 THE RESULT OF THE BATTLE
 Linux is a very viable OS for your business
as it is a stable OS & a real workhorse.
– Linux is not a good server but good work-
station.
– Linux reduces costs of software licensing fees.
 Windows is a useful OS as
– It is easy to operate
– Saves training cost in case of an organization
– Easy to repair & maintain
 WHO IS THE WINNER?
 Both of them have their own capabilities,
advantages & disadvantages.
 Linux is more stable, secure & Windows is
easy to operate, user friendly, easy to
maintain.
 Both are equally excellent in their own
proficiency.