Linux vs. Windows: the Operating System Battle

1570 Words7 Pages
Linux vs. Windows: The Operating System Battle As of late, more and more controversy is being debated over what operating system will prevail and ultimately dominate in the field of both, desktop computer and server systems. While Apple's macintosh computers are great, the common argument is that of Linux and Windows, and the battle of commercial vs. free and open-source. Linux has often been the tool of the geek and technical user. Lately, in order to compete with super corporations like Microsoft, Linux vendors have made it easier for the "normal" computer user to manage Linux. “What makes Linux so great? and why do people use Windows?"...This essay hopes to answer those questions. Linux is the kernel of an operating system of the same name and it was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991. Linux's ancestry goes back to a mainframe operating system known as Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Services) and Unix. Multics, created in 1965, was one of the first multi-user computer systems. "Ken Thompson and Dennis Richie worked with Multics developing software, until Bell Labs (the owner of the software) withdrew from the project in 1969"(Learning Debian Linux Chapter 1.2 ). Without access to a Multics computer, they decided to create an operating system that could run on a PDP-7 computer. Eventually, they created what was originally called Unics, as a pun on Multics, and the 'C' computer language. Later on, the spelling became Unix for reasons that are still mysterious to most of us. Ritchie and Thompson made copies of Unix available for free to everyone in the world. Programmers revised and improved Unix, sending word of their changes back to Ritchie and Thompson, who incorporated the changes into the original Unix. When AT&T realized the commercial potential of Unix, it clamed Unix as its intellectual property, and began charging license fees. Soon,

More about Linux vs. Windows: the Operating System Battle

Open Document