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What Differentiates Linux from Windows?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the besides-the-random-crashes dept.

tail.man sent in a Linux Insider piece about the difference between Linux and Windows. Quoting the synopsis "So, what's really the difference between a Unix variant like Linux and any Windows OS? It's that Microsoft reacts to marketing pressure to make design decisions favoring running a few processes faster but then finds itself forced first to layer in backward compatibility and then to engage in a patch-and-kludge upgrade process until the code becomes so bloated, slow and unreliable that wholesale replacement is again called for."

27 of 1,135 comments (clear)

  1. The Difference. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny
    1. Linux does you want. Windows does what Microsoft wants.
    2. Unless what you want is to copy and paste between applications, in which case the opposite is true.
  2. Re:Excellent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Quick.... get Paul Thurott on the horn

  3. Simple Difference... by axis-techno-geek · · Score: 2, Funny
    Linux is Good, Windows is Evil. :)

    --
    This is not the sig line you are looking for... -- Old Jedi Sig Line Trick
  4. Windows users aren't commies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Windows users are productive and aren't poor so they can afford it. Linux is made by poor people for poor people and is under the GPL which the Communist Party also uses.

    http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/ co mmunist-manifesto/"

  5. Re:Mozilla Crash@? by ultrabot · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know somewhat offtopic... but the article link crashed Moz here for me.. anyone else get that? Ver 1.5

    I'll AOL that.

    Actually, this is a good opportunity to pinpoint all those Internet Exploder users within the slashdot community and excommunicate them once and for all.

    --
    Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
  6. i guess by jiffah · · Score: 3, Funny

    it is that one is inately evil..

  7. Re:The author, Paul Murphy... by dupper · · Score: 5, Funny
    At first, I thought that said The Guide to Unix Defenestration. Of course, I pictured a bunch of pocket protectored Geeks toppling a server rack out of a 6th story window. Heh.

    Oh, and for those who don't get this or the parent: ..."

  8. Re:The Difference... by Orgazmus · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, MicroSoft must have confused that with imperial. 1m of Windows buggyness =~ 1' of linux sweetness

    --
    The system had the verbosity of HTML combined with all the readability of compiled assembly viewed as bitmap images
  9. Definition... (OT) by Embedded+Geek · · Score: 5, Funny
    Whenever anyone presents a "definition" that is clearly loaded with bias (regardless of whether I share the bias), it makes me recall an incident with Clint Eastwood (cited here):

    While he was in New York on location for Bronco Billy (1980), Clint Eastwood agreed to a television interview. His host, somewhat hostile, began by defining a Clint Eastwood picture as a violent, ruthless, lawless, and bloody piece of mayhem, and then asked Eastwood himself to define a Clint Eastwood picture.

    "To me," said Eastwood calmly, "what a Clint Eastwood picture is, is one that I'm in."

    --

    "Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."

  10. It's ownership by DangerSteel · · Score: 5, Funny
    Microsoft owns the code to Windows

    SCO owns the code to Linux

    any questions? /puts on flamesuit/

    1. Re:It's ownership by infra · · Score: 1, Funny

      Microsoft owns the code to Windows

      SCO owns the code to Linux

      Then, by correlation, Microsoft own Linux.

  11. The Difference... by TerminalInsanity · · Score: 2, Funny
    What Differentiates Linux from Windows?
    One costs 500 bucks so you can use lousey tech support. The other doesnt.
  12. Mod Troll -1 by HarveyBirdman · · Score: 4, Funny

    One has adherents that are noisy, abusive, close-minded, stubborn, silly and the other- oh, wait a minute...

    --
    --- Ban humanity.
  13. Re:Close... by zcat_NZ · · Score: 5, Funny

    .. That's what I used to think. Then I tried installing Redhat 9.

    "somewhere inside Gnome, there's a small, fast and efficient GUI struggling to get out"

    --
    455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
  14. One word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Clippy.

    I rest my case.

  15. Re:Close... by Orgazmus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ok, you win.
    I guess calling Windows an OS here is like cursing in church ;)

    --
    The system had the verbosity of HTML combined with all the readability of compiled assembly viewed as bitmap images
  16. Re:The Difference... by pi+radians · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's true! I get my lousy tech support for free!

    --

    sin(6cos(r)+5A)
  17. Re:The Difference... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Like an abcessed molar vs a deep-tissue massage from a pair of Swedish lingerie models.

  18. Simple by Fizzlewhiff · · Score: 3, Funny

    What Differentiates Linux from Windows?

    A license to use code from SCO?

    --

    'Same speed C but faster'
  19. Wel.. by cdrudge · · Score: 2, Funny

    Lets find out...

    % echo "windows" > windows
    % echo "linux" > linux
    % diff windows linux
    1c1
    linux
    %

    Apparently, everything is different between the two. Maybe I'm wrong. I did this on on an OpenServer box, and since SCO owns everything...maybe they are the same.

  20. The Difference by beej · · Score: 2, Funny
    "The different is that Linux don't rip your arms out of your sockets when you try to use it... Windows has been known to do that."

    "I see your point, sir. I suggest a new strategy R2: let the Clippy win."

  21. Re:Huh? by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1, Funny
    On the other hand, my ex girlfriend sent me a screensaver she made with photos and video clips on Mac OSX

    "Here's me with me new boyfriend."

    "Here's us again, having sex."

    "Boy, we're rabbits, aren't we?"

    "Here's your picture, torn in two."

    "Here's me burning the stuffed animal you gave me."

    "Here's us having sex again."

    ...

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  22. Re:The author, Paul Murphy... by Atmchicago · · Score: 3, Funny

    Or it could be "The Guide to Eunuch's Defenestration" - imagine a bunch of geeks throwing Eunuchs out the 6th story window. A slightly disturbing image to say the least.

    --

    You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it dissolve.

  23. Re:Close... by name773 · · Score: 1, Funny
    I guess calling Windows an OS here is like cursing in church ;)

    except in here, ncurses are ok

  24. Windows is obviously much easier to use by J-B0nd · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just set up a windows machine and connected it to my broadband internet connection.

    Within the hour I had a fully functional email server running on it, along with VNC capabilities, and was using my bandwith to the fullest.

    Of course, I don't remember installing any of it...

  25. Re:The author, Paul Murphy... by NanoGator · · Score: 1, Funny

    "Or it could be "The Guide to Eunuch's Defenestration" - imagine a bunch of geeks throwing Eunuchs out the 6th story window. A slightly disturbing image to say the least. "

    Oh dear. Isn't OSX based on Eunuchs?

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  26. So? by EventHorizon · · Score: 2, Funny

    One thing they have in common:

    Both are now open source.