Define Operating System (OS). Differentiate between Linux and Windows Operating System

Operating System (OS)

An operating system (OS) is a program intend to control the computer hardware and behave as an intermediary between user and hardware.

Linux Operating System:

Linux is a free operating system. It  is also open source operating system based on Unix standards user can make changes in it according to its needs. It provides programming interface compatible with Unix based system and provides large variety applications. A Linux system also contains several individually developed parts, resulting in Unix system which is fully compatible and free from proprietary code.


Windows Operating System:

Windows is a licensed operating system. Source code is inaccessible in it. It is designed for the individuals with the perspective of having no computer programming knowledge and for business and other commercial users. It is very simple and straightforward to use.

7 Differences between Linux and Windows Operating System

• Linux is open source operating system whereas Windows is a commercial operating system whose source code is inaccessible.

• The prior difference between Linux and Windows is that Linux is totally free of cost whereas windows is marketable operating system and is costly.

• Windows is not customize able as against Linux is customize and a user can modify the code and can change its look and feel.

• Linux provide high security than windows because Linux is open source.

• In Linux, file names are case sensitive whereas names of file are case insensitive in windows.

• The separation of directors is done using a backslash in windows. on the other hand, in Linux, these are separated by using forward slash.

• Linux uses the monolithic kernel which users more running space whereas Windows uses less running space but system running efficiency is slow than Linux.