Most of the people think that a computers can’t run without Windows OS. But they are wrong. Computers are being used before Windows was launched. Its okay that they were very difficult to use at that time and Windows made it amazingly user friendly, but there are number of operating system other than MS Windows which are excellent for personal and professional use, however, are a bit unknown and recessive ones.
The most popular operating system after Windows is Apple’s Mac OS. We’ll talk about it later, as it is a paid OS and today we are talking about open source OSes. Now, the best open source OS we found is UBUNTU (latest version – Ubuntu 11.04). Let’s compare MS windows and Ubuntu :
Performance
Windows
After the launch of Windows 7, It was considered to be faster than earlier versions of Windows (Windows XP, Windows Vista) but may be it is result of constant patching and piracy, that many of the users denied it giving a reason that it slows down the machine when installed on a low configured system which is quite opposite what MS said at launch , “It is not as system hungry as Vista was.”
Ubuntu
As far as Ubuntu is concerned, I tried it on a intel P3 processor and a Dual core as well. Though it was slow on Graphics on P3, but on dual core, it shined as diamond. It gives you 4 work-spaces, I tried multitasking on all 4 of them at once and the performance was far better than Windows. Where Windows programs had stopped responding, Ubuntu programs were a bit slow, but responding.
Score ~ Ubuntu : 1 , Windows : 0.
Graphics
Windows
No one would like Windows 97 for having “looks”. Thus as technology enhanced, MS enhanced looks too. Windows XP was good, Vista was better and 7 is the best from MS till date. It gives you considerable graphics if used on a considerable high-graphic computer. Still, it slows down on a low configured PC.
Ubuntu
If you haven’t seen Ubuntu’s graphic, you MUST see them once. It gives you a choice of options – No graphics, Basic graphics and High graphics. When I chose High Graphics, the results were heart touching. Dialogue boxes gestures like Jelly when moved, it BUMPS when you maximize, sleeks to the taskbar when you minimize.. they are so good that can’t be deciphered in words or pictures.
Scores ~ Ubuntu: 2, Windows : 0.
Compatibility
Windows
Here, I think Windows is something I prefer. 50% users over the globe use Windows. 30% do use Mac and remaining 20% works with Ubuntu and other OSes. Therefore, most of the softwares and games are designed for Windows. It is sure that many of them are also available for Gnome based OSes (Ubuntu, Mac, Fedora etc.) but they are mainly for Windows. Very general example to show this is to search for a software on Google. By default, you will find result for the software for Windows. But if you want to find something for Mac, you HAVE TO tell it, “software for Mac”. This reflects that Internet and software market was and is MS dominating.
Ubuntu
Ubuntu, an open source OS, such OSes aren’t allowed to use Microsoft owned extensions like .exe, therefore, they can’t be used to open windows MSI installer files. In short, Windows softwares do not work on Ubuntu. Yes, there are softwares like Wine HQ are there for such jobs but they are neither official, nor reliable. Still, Ubuntu had tried enough to convince users with their Software Center which gives you thousands of free softwares but as I found, they are not so user friendly to get into. User friendly, we’ll talk about that soon.
Still, it tries it’s best giving you Mozilla Firefox, Thunder Bird, Skype, Chrome, Open Office and many many more softwares and programs initially.
Scores~ Ubuntu: 2, Windows:1
User Friendliness
Windows
Windows had made computer a lot easier to use. We appreciate it. They made computer so easy to use that anyone can use it now. It is perfect for a kid who wants to play games and a programmer who wants highly advanced softwares and coding stuff. Windows is everywhere.
Ubuntu
In case of user friendliness, I don’t find Ubuntu a good choice for users who haven’t been to Linux kind of OSes before. You frequently need to open Terminal (similar to Command Prompt in Windows). Sometimes, you need to insert strings to even copy and paste, for eg.
sudo gedit /var/www/mytext.txt
Now, what the above string does it opens Ubuntu’s text editor (gedit) and creates a file in www directory, under var directory in system drive and the file is name mytext. Now imagine how easy it would be to do on Windows.
Scores: Ubuntu:2, Windows:2
So, we have a tie! I don’t have any other parameters to compare them for using as a personal computer’s OS. Of course price of Windows 7 is significant compared to the Free Ubuntu. You can share your experience about both of the OSes below in comments . I am sure that you are using Windows and I recommend you to download Ubuntu for free. It is worth 700MB or so. Also, you can order a CD for free but it consumes time.
