Windows vs. Linux?

Microsoft Windows has been the go to operating system for 37 years. There have been countless competitors that have come and gone along the way. The most mainstream though are still going strong and although they have a significantly lower market share, much to Microsoft's annoyance, they show no sign of going away and are actually not doing a bad job of slowly starting to erode Microsoft's dominance.

If you haven't guessed it by now, we're of course talking about Chrome OS, Mac OS and Linux in all their different varieties. Today we're going to focus on Linux and try to answer the question... is it time you ditched Windows and moved to Linux? The first thing to mention is that Linux is not a single operating system. It is the name given to a collective group of "distros" which are all individual in their own right. The most common are Ubuntu and Mint. For the purposes of today though, we're going to keep it simple and just refer to Linux. So, should you make the switch, well yes, and no. Let us explain!

95% of the computers we see are running Microsoft Windows. The somewhat iconic "Start" menu and desktop layout look and feel familiar even to the complete novice. It's what you probably used in school (if you're under a certain age!), it's what you likely use in work and I'd bet it's what most of your friends and family use too. Windows boasts a market share of 80.5%. That means Chrome, Mac, Linux and everything else you can think of, combined, only has a 19.5% market share. Not a lot really.

And, that's the first reason to avoid Linux. It is different. It looks different and feels different. It can actually be made to look similar to Windows but there's no getting away from it, the way it works is fundamentally different. Whether those differences are a good or a bad thing is debatable but there's no escaping that if you move to Linux there is a certain amount of learning ahead. Not everyone can be bothered to go on that journey. Sometimes it all seems just a bit too much of a faff.

Secondly, you may become familiar with it, but everyone else you'll ever meet thinks of Windows when they think of a computer. Even if they're a totally new user, at the very least, most would recognise Windows. Not the case with Linux. Most basic users have never heard of it and even those that have, don't really know how to use it. That means that you have to be comfortable with being the odd one out. While everyone else is running Windows, Office, Edge and Photoshop, you're sat there with your strange machine, running Linux, Libre, Firefox and GIMP

Thirdly, it is a bit more "hands on" than its Windows counterpart. I think it would be hard for anyone, even the biggest fans of Linux to claim that it has the same sort of finesse that Windows has. A proportion of Windows users have never seen a command prompt and would be daunted black screen with white writing. In the modern world of advanced GUIs, the Linux terminal is not exactly glamorous.

With all of those reasons for avoiding Linux, you might be forgiven for thinking that we're not fans. You'd be wrong though! This very post is being written on a system running Linux. So, why exactly would you want to switch? The biggest reason has to be cost. At the time of writing purchasing Windows 11 Home on a USB stick, with a licence, would cost you £111.48. For Windows 11 Pro that increases to £194.99. How much would it cost you for Linux? Zero! Yes, thats right; free, nada, zilch. You just install whichever version (or distro) you prefer and get on with you life. You can download plenty of other software too like Libre Office and anything else you can find in catalog of thousands of other options - all free. With windows, aside from the upfront cost, an Office 365 subscription is £5.99/month and you're bound to find plenty of other things to bump the cost up even further

Still not convinced? What if we told you that Linux is faster?? Ok, that's a bit of a simplistic claim. What we actually mean is that Linux is a much "lighter" operating system than Windows. That means it can breath a new lease of life in to older hardware. Systems that might struggle with the latest versions of Windows run remarkably well on Linux and of course they're kept current with the latest updates. Even if you're running newer hardware you can feel the benefits too. Although it doesn't actually make your hardware run any faster, it uses much less resource and so does complete tasks at a faster pace.

The modern world is full of online spyware, viruses and security threats. Fortunately though, you'd be hard pressed to find one that would find its way in to your Linux system. Why? Well when these nefarious characters are trying to gain access or cause havoc on as many systems as possible, they target the OS with the most users, Windows. You don't even need any Anti-Virus software for it.

So far we've got an OS that admittedly looks and feels a bit different to Windows and can be a little bit more clunky to use. But it is totally free, much more secure and noticeably faster. Seems like a no brainer, Linux it is! Well actually no...

The real crux of the issue is compatibility. Virtually every piece of software available will work on Windows. An awful lot of that same software won't work on Linux. That isn't a problem in itself because there are usually Linux alternatives. For MS Office you have Libre Office. For MS Edge you have Mozilla Firefox and so on. Where this falls flat on it's face though is gaming. If you want to play Fortnite, there is no Linux alternative, you can't do it. The die hard Linux fans and advanced users will spout about WINE, VMs and all of those shenanigans but for a basic user, that's all unnecessarily. If you had Windows instead, just like everyone else, it would just work

It's a shame really. Just because Windows has the bigger following, doesn't mean it's any good. Something that is often misunderstood is just how much data Microsoft collects about you. And although possible to put a stop to, it's not easy at all. Another well publicised criticism of Windows is the lack of customisation. You're stuck with what Windows tells you to have in most areas, even down to having a Microsoft account. A move to Linux would put an end to all of this.

Linux has moved on an awful long way over the years. If you use your computer for browsing the web, social media and office type work then a switch to Linux could be a brilliant thing. But if you are even a light gamer then you're best off (or stuck!) with Windows.