Ubuntu 9.10 Vs Windows 7: 5 reasons why Linux wins

John says:

Seteve,

Knowing you are a systems engineer, I think you will agree on a couple points I have here.

First, we should both know that having physical access to any system makes it easy to gain administrative/root/whatever to it. That is across the board, Windows, Linux, Netware, etc.

One thing I will say is that Ubuntu made it very easy to encrypt the users home directory upon install. Windows has encryption features also, but not quite as easy and is not supported across the versions of Windows 7. That alone to me is more important that someone being able to root my box if they have physical access.

Second, I always hear the “Windows is a bigger target” argument a lot. That is definitely true, but not a way to measure how secure something is. I’m sure the Pentagon is a bigger target than my house, but I’m sure it’s a lot easier to get into my house than the pentagon. So that is a moot point. The reason Linux, *Nix, and most POSIX conforming architectures are more secure is they have been built from the ground up to separate the user space from the system. While that doesn’t cover all security problems, it does mean that a regular user of the system won’t get infected with viruses from other users of the system (unless that user happens to have root access).

My last point is the installation piece. I’ve had the pleasure of installing Windows 7 now for a month (we got it early via enterprise agreement). While the install is pretty trivial, I have run into the same thing I always do with Windows installs. I have to find drivers, and this time around I even had to upgrade BIOS’s on Dell Optiplexes and Dell Latitudes.

I’ve installed Ubuntu 9.10 now for a week, and I’ve had some issues also with drivers, mainly on my netbook. I refreshed the software packages, and enabled the missing drivers.

Neither of these pose a problem to me. It’s my job to figure these things out, or at lease have one of my techs figure them out. Once they are figured out, we deploy en mass, we don’t keep tweaking…

As far as the Powershell vs. Bash (or your favorite shell), I use both to great effect.

Your last point is the greatest hurdle in adopting Ubuntu. Active Directory, while not the only game in town, or the best, has become a defacto standard for most medium sized IT shops. There are other options, but it’s a bigger hurdle to migrate AD than it is for the actual desktops.

With that said, we do use Ubuntu loaded computers in a few areas. They are great for public access computers, and they are great for accessing intranet only type applications. I don’t have many problems with these machines, and it’s almost a leave them and forget them proposition.

nospam says:

Hard coded settings, unnecessary warning after each mouse click but lack of real choices, ugliness, bloat and marketing bullshit. Windows the same old milk-cow in a flashy package served by a bunch of MS Pimps.

Windows 7 is Vista with a bit of makeup, Visat is XP with a bit of makeup, etc. What’s new? Oh nothing really, but unnecessary resources needed by unnecessary code and applications (20 GB for an OS, is this a joke?!?). BTW DOS sucks as much as powershell does, and in a large manner any MS products do.

Either you use windows because you don’t know Linux, either because you are a complete cretin. and if you use Mac, you deserve the palm!

Complain (in vain, but complain anyway) to the hardware makers maffia supporter of the MS pimps! Educate your children and change their consumption habits and if you have a wife, lock her in the kitchen, that’s her real place. And if she says a thing - hit her with the laptop (you are also welcome to hit any MS pimps staff, and you kids if they ask you for an i-pod, i-mac, mashit, etc.). My advice chose a strong notebook - like a Thoughbook (Panasonic)- it is shock resistant and Linux compatible (load the module panasonic if your FN keys are not working)

Enjoy Linux. it’s simple, fast, funny to use and light. Hit the bad people with your notebook and make the earth a better place to live.

prax says:

Windows archiecture makes it more vulnerable than popular-target aspect.

Windows 7 never detected more hardware than ubuntu in my experience.

Ubuntu lacks gaming software support in front of windows due to windows popularity.

Funniest part is your “it’s rediculously easy to get root on Linux if you can get to the console”

Arent you a system administrator?

repeater says:

Both Windows and Linux have their problems. Neither of them are 100%. Both can be frustrating at times. Both require tweaking to get setup just the way you want.
By default, Ubuntu will out preform Windows 7 but Ubuntu\’s defaults are not nearly enough and by the time you milk the repositories for hours you\’ve got yourself another bloated cow. On the other side of the same coin you can spend an hour trimming down Windows to be have it less user friendly just like Ubuntu\’s default install. thus increasing it\’s windows boot time and overall performance.

That\’s what install after install of either one of these OS\’s boils down to. You beef one up and trim the other down to get what you want.
According to the CIA World Fact book there are around 6.6 billion people living on the world in this year.
Although their were no guesses as to how many of those 6.6 billion owned computers, I would venture to say it\’s a lot. Lets just pretend it\’s half. So that means theirs 3.3 billion people who will want their beige boxes setup the way they want. That\’s a lot of choices for any OS to cover straight out of the box and a lot of room for errors and a lot of jobs for wanna be tele-prompt text support in India.

Bottom line.
Fresh install of Linux = way fast, but then you want something pretty so you go install Compiz Fusion and now you\’re hoggin and boggin.

And for the windows users, you installed that over bloated OS with more services than a $200 hooker.

Somewhere in the middle you will eventually find a Decent looking $100 hooker.

The End, I like you, good bye.