What is the difference between Windows & Linux?



Welcome to Linux.org!

To answer your 2nd question first, you can do software development in either, even OS X is popular at some companies. All modern OSes have tools to develop.

That being said, I believe it's more convenient to develop and code in Linux as it's likely the OS where the code will be running anyway once it's complete. This means you can test your code on your workstation in most cases, etc..

For your 2nd question, while there are a TON of differences between Windows and Linux, both look/feel similar. One big difference for Linux is that you can accomplish much more via command line. You'll find that most Linux users usually have at least one or two terminal windows open for various things.. for me it's for ssh sessions into remove Linux machines, for others it's for coding or tweaking settings on their system.

Also, software updates on Linux are a breeze compared to Windows.. you can either use a graphical interface to update or a quick command, then shoot it into the background. Also, with Windows, most times you're rebooting because something froze up, or updates just went through, etc.. Linux, you're really only rebooting if you do a kernel update..

Hope this helps!

Your next question should be which Linux Distribution is best for what you want to use it for! :)

Rob
 
You are going to receive a lot of different answers to your questions, but to ME I think that the main difference between Linux and Windows is support. With Windows you MIGHT receive some company support from Microsoft, but with Linux you WILL receive a lot of direct community support. The Linux community is very diverse and they can usually assist you with any issues and or questions.

I use both Linux and Windows and to me the reason why I prefer Linux is because of philosophy. The philosophy of Linux is one of inclusion, and the philosophy of Windows is one of exclusion.

Rocky
 
I'd suggest trying something like Fedora, Ubuntu or Mint to start off. Fedora is rpm based (red hat, centos) and Ubuntu/Mint are debian based. Any of those should support most hardware out there and be friendly enough for you to be able to get around relatively easily.

We have a download page (https://www.linux.org/pages/download/) that points to each of their download pages.

Rob
 
You are going to receive a lot of different answers to your questions, but to ME I think that the main difference between Linux and Windows is support. With Windows you MIGHT receive some company support from Microsoft, but with Linux you WILL receive a lot of direct community support. The Linux community is very diverse and they can usually assist you with any issues and or questions.

I use both Linux and Windows and to me the reason why I prefer Linux is because of philosophy. The philosophy of Linux is one of inclusion, and the philosophy of Windows is one of exclusion.

Rocky
Rocky I am just starting to use Linux, but that is one of the biggest things that has convinced me Linux is better and to even give it a try was the Linux Philosophy. It is more Freedom based and being open source encourages community support and improvement. People do better without a bunch of corporate control and the corporate bottom line. Just my initial take.
 

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