Comparing Windows 7 and Linux Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop Edition

Comparing Windows 7 and Linux Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop Edition

Before we make any comparison of the two operating systems, let us be clear about some fundamental issues. If I have spent about 10 years with Windows environment, whereas only one week or so with Linux, my comments would be biased as the effort spend on learning the two is absolutely unbalanced.

I spend money on Windows and very soon a new version is released, I have to spend again. I purchased legal copy of DOS 6.22 way back in 1994 or so. Soon Windows was released. I realised that as an individual I shall never be able to cope up with this race. Result was trial versions, pirated copies etc.

An associated issue is of viruses and anti virus. I kept wasting time and money. Ultimately, I had to settle with some free antivirus like Avast and others. But the antivirus has never been able to give me comfortable computing. Never sure whether my system was clean or infected.

Start adding the cost of other software packages - Microsoft office, Corel Draw or photo shop for graphics, Nero for CD burning, etc, the list is a long one. Spending money on all these unless I had commercial requirements, was a herculean task. Even if I purchase them, how to remain updated with all the new versions! More and more money in required.

By this time I have already spent about eight months with Linux (starting with Ubuntu 8.10, 9.04, 9.10 and now 10.04). To a limited extent, I tried other flavors also like Fedora 11, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 as well. I have put in lot of efforts in using Ubuntu 9.10 and 10.04 Server edition as well.

At this stage I find the following advantages with Ubuntu (10.04 as compared to Windows XP:-

1. No cost for operating system.
2. All updates free of cost.
3. OpenOffice.org is free and compatible with Microsoft Office.
4. Almost all additional packages in Linux are free.
5. Free CD Burning software.
6. Free graphics image editor.
7. In general the hardware printers, scanners etc got recognised quickly. Very little time was spent on installing the hardware.
8. Free MySQL database server.
9. Free Apache WebServer.
10. I can do almost everything in Ubuntu that I could do in Windows.
11. There is much more . . . . . the list would go on.
12. Most important, No viruses, therefore no anti-virus required. The system, therefore, operates with full resources in terms of CPU time and RAM. This means no slowing down of system due to virus/antivirus!

Despite, initial difficulties, I felt highly comfortable with Linux (Ubuntu 9.04, 9.10 and Now 10.04). I still use Windows when I am stuck looking for solution to some typical problems.

I scan the pen drives in Linux for virus. If I copy only one file on a pen drive from a Windows system and see its directory on Ubuntu, I generally find more files in the pen drive. Additional files are Virus files. Deleting these files means cleaning the virus. As simple as that! All this is for a layman, technical persons need more discussions on technical grounds.

I am very happy with Linux (9.10 and 10.04) and I am grateful to the Ubuntu community.

There are some teething problems in relation to using SquirrelMail on Ubuntu 10.04. However, it is a matter of doing some more homework.