Difference between Linux and Windows Operating System

The prior difference between Linux and Windows operating system is that Linux is totally free of cost whereas windows is marketable operating system and is costly. An operating system is a program intended to control the computer hardware and behave as an intermediary between user and hardware.

The prior difference between Linux and Windows operating system is that Linux is totally free of cost whereas windows is marketable operating system and is costly. An operating system is a program intended to control the computer hardware and behave as an intermediary between user and hardware.

Linux is an open source operating system where users can access the source code and can improve the code using the system. On the other hand, in windows, users can not access source code, and it is a licensed OS.

Comparison Chart

BASIS FOR COMPARISON	LINUX	WINDOWS
Cost	Free of cost	Expensive
Open source	Yes	No
Customizable	Yes	No
Security	More secure	Vulnerable to viruses and malware attacks.
Booting	Either primary or logical partition.	Only primary partition.
Separation of the directories using	Forward slash	Back slash
File names	Case sensitive	Case insensitive
File system	EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, Reisers FS, XFS and JFS	FAT, FAT32, NTFS and ReFS
Type of kernel used	Monolithic kernel	Microkernel
Efficiency	Effective running efficiency	Lower than Linux

Definition of Linux

Linux is a free and open source operating system based on Unix standards. It provides programming interface as well as user interface compatible with Unix based systems and provides large variety applications. A Linux system also contains many separately developed elements, resulting in Unix system which is fully compatible and free from proprietary code.

The traditional monolithic kernel is employed in Linux kernel for performance purpose, but its modular feature allows most drivers to dynamically loaded and unloaded at runtime. Linux protects processes and is a multiuser system. Interprocess communication is supported by both of mechanisms such as message queue, shared memory and semaphore.

An abstract layer is used in Linux to govern the different file systems, but to users, the file system looks like a hierarchical directory tree. It also supports networked, device-oriented and virtual file systems. Disk storage is accessed through a page cache which is unified with the virtual memory systems. To minimize the duplication of shared data among different processes the memory management system uses page sharing and copy-on-write.

Ubuntu 17.10 is the latest release of linux family operating system. The default user interface of the given version is GNOME, Ubuntu Unity (in older versions).

Definition of Windows

Windows is a licensed operating system in which source code is inaccessible. It is designed for the individuals with the perspective of having no computer programming knowledge and for business and other commercial users. It is very simple and straightforward to use.

Windows is extensible, portable and assists multiple operating environments, symmetric multiprocessing and client-server computing. It offers integrated caching, virtual memory, and preemptive scheduling.

Windows 10 (1709) is the latest release of Microsoft Windows operating system. Its default user interface is Windows shell (Graphical). It uses hybrid kernel in older versions micro kernel is mostly used.

Key Differences Between Linux and Windows Operating System

1. Linux is free and open source operating system whereas Windows is a commercial operating system whose source code is inaccessible.

2. Windows is not customizable as against Linux is customizable and a user can modify the code and can change its the look and feel.

3. Linux provides high security than windows because Linux is open source.

4. Windows must boot from the primary partition. In contrast, there is no such constraint in Linux it can be booted from either primary or logical partition.

5. The separation of the directories is done using a backslash in windows. On the contrary, in Linux, these are separated by using forward slash.

6. In Linux, file names are case sensitive while windows file name are case-insensitive.

7. Linux uses the monolithic kernel which consumes more running space whereas Windows uses the micro kernel which takes less space but system running efficiency is lower than Linux.