Linux vs. Windows     Page

Linux vs. Windows

Alicia C. Robinson

John Alexander

University of Phoenix

September 12, 2007


The debate on Windows vs. Linux is truly at forefront with corporations today.  Regardless how one may come to this juncture one is usually a UNIX supporter or a customer of Microsoft’s operating system and products who are grateful for products of Microsoft. In the following paragraphs their will be comparisons of the advantages and disadvantages of these different systems. There will be a brief description on the cost of these products, what kind of market-share these two systems hold, the availability of application software, and the different types of Hardware needed. There will also be a brief description of functionality, performance, File System Comparisons, and the Security that comes with these products.  

        When one start breaking down different aspects of Linux and Windows one can see how each product is capable of fulfilling the requirement.  One system maybe bests for one situation the other for another situation.  It is important for a business to understand the needs that it will be fulfilling with each of these operating systems.  

        Today hardware prices have significantly dropped allowing the purchase of an average desktop to be $300 estimate and server to be $1199.  The Linux operating system requires very little hardware resource for its desktop and server as opposed to Windows.  But with low hardware prices the playing ground has been leveled therefore, hardware is not much of an issue.  Hardware only becomes an issue when upgrading the Windows operating system.  Each time Windows comes out with a new operating system the hardware requirements changes.  Windows XP hardware requirements were Pentium 233MHz, 128mb RAM and 1.5GB hard drive space.  Windows Vista hardware requirements are Pentium 1GHz, 1GB RAM and 15GB hard drive space. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304297, 2007)  Linux on the other hand, hardware requirements do not change based on the distribution that one is working with. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 desktop runs on all x86 (32 bit) and x86-64 (64 bit) processors with memory up to 4GB.  (http://www.redhat.com/rhel/desktop/details/, 2007)   Microsoft requires enterprises to stay up to date with their operating systems in order to continue receiving enterprise support.  This forces a corporation to upgrade the hardware in order to support the newest Windows operating system.

        The license cost for Windows XP is $299 and for Red Hat Enterprise Linux desktop is $179.  There are other distributions of Linux that are free and have a large user group that will support it.  Ubuntu for an example offers free distribution of their Linux.  But having a workstation with only an operating system is not a workstation that will allow a business to be productive.  There are applications that are needed in order to have a productive workstation.  An office suite is needed which has document, spreadsheet, database and presentation software.  For the Windows environment there is Office 2007 which costs $399 for the standard edition.  The Linux environment comes with Open office which is built into the operating system therefore, it’s free.  

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        A workstation must also be secure.  The Symantec antivirus software runs on the Windows operating and the licensing cost per workstation is $39.99.  The enterprise edition of the Symantec antivirus software also has Antispyware built in.  Microsoft also provides a security patch system named Windows Update that keeps the Microsoft Windows environment patched with all of the latest security patches which is free.  Red Hat Enterprise Linux does provide an area to report vulnerabilities and get updates.  Linux is an open source operating in which there are open source user groups that will work on fixes and patches.  There is ...

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