1.Linux is an Open-source Operating System. People can change code and add programs which will help to use your computer better. It's designed as a reaction on the monopoly position of windows. You can't change any thing in windows. You can't even see which processes do what and build your own extension. Linux wants the programmers to extend and redesign its OS time after time, so it beats Windows or at least is as good as windows, but with open-source, so you can see what happens and you can edit the OS.

2. All the flavors of Windows come from Microsoft, the various distributions of Linux come from different companies (i.e Lindows , Lycoris, Red Hat, SuSe, Mandrake, Knopping, Slackware).

3. Linux is customizable in a way that Windows is not. For example, NASlite is a version of Linux that runs off a single floppy disk and converts an old computer into a file server. This ultra small edition of Linux is capable of networking, file sharing and being a web server.

4. For server use, Linux is very cheap as compared to Windows. Microsoft allows a single copy of Windows to be used on only one computer. Starting with Windows XP, they use software to enforce this rule (activation). In contrast, once you have purchased Linux, you can run it on any number of computers for no additional charge. (In Pakistan due to loose handling of copy rights rules U can install single Microsoft OS instance on as many machines as u want unless CD become corrupted ;-)

5. You have to log on to Linux with a userid and password. This is not true of Windows. Typically Windows 9x does not ask for a userid/password at boot time and, even if it does, this can be easily bypassed. In general, Windows NT, 2000 and XP do require a userid/password to log on. However Windows 2000 and XP can be configured with a default userid and password so they boot directly to the Windows desktop. Windows XP, 2000 and Linux all support different types of users. Windows XP Home Edition supports Administrator class users that have full and total access to the system and restricted users that, among other restrictions, can't install software. Windows XP Pro and Windows 2000 support additional levels of users and there are groups of system privileges that can be assigned to a particular user. In Linux, the user with full and total access is called root, everyone else is a normal user. The options for Linux security privileges don't seem to me to be as robust as in Windows 2000 and XP Pro, they are focused on files and directories (can you read, update and execute files). Linux has a concept of a group of users that Windows does not, but again the privileges associated with a group are all file/directory related.

6. Linux has a reputation for fewer bugs than Windows. I personally explore this fact. But slow start up of Linux boot up really challenge my attitude ;-)

7. Windows must boot from a primary partition. Linux can boot from either a primary partition or a logical partition inside an extended partition. Windows must boot from the first hard disk. Linux can boot from any hard disk in the computer.

8. Windows uses a hidden file for its swap file. Typically this file resides in the same partition as the OS (advanced users can opt to put the file in another partition). Linux uses a dedicated partition for its swap file (advanced users can opt to implement the swap file as a file in the same partition as the OS).

9. Windows uses FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and/or NTFS with NTFS almost always being the best choice. Linux also has a number of its own native file systems. Windows separates directories with a back slash, Linux uses a normal forward slash. Windows file names are not case sensitive. Linux file names are. For example "abc" and "aBC" are different files in Linux, whereas in Windows it would refer to the same file. Case sensitivity has been a problem for this very web page, the name of which is "Linux.vs.Windows.html". At times, people have tried to get to this page using "linux.vs.windows.html" (all lower case) which resulted in a Page Not Found error.

10. Windows and Linux use different concepts for their file hierarchy. Windows uses a volume-based file hierarchy, Linux uses a unified scheme. Windows uses letters of the alphabet to represent different devices and different hard disk partitions. Under Windows, you need to know what volume (C:, D:,...) a file resides on to select it, the file's physical location is part of it's name. In Linux all directories are attached to the root directory, which is identified by a forward-slash, "/". For example, below are some second-level directories: /bin/ ---- system binaries, user programs with normal user permissions /sbin --- executables that need root permission /data/ --- a user defined directory /dev/ ---- system device tree /etc/ ---- system configuration /home/ --- users' subdirectories /home/{username} akin to the Windows My Documents folder /tmp/ ---- system temporary files /usr/ ---- applications software /usr/bin - executables for programs with user permission /var/ ---- system variables /lib --- libraries needed for installed programs to run.

11. Windows started with BAT files (a combination of OS commands and optionally its own language) and then progressed to Windows Scripting Host (WSH) which supports two languages, JavaScript and VB Script. Linux, like all Unix variants, provides multiple scripting languages, referred to as shell scripts. In general, the Linux scripting languages are older and cruder than WSH but much more powerful than BAT files. They tend to use special characters instead of English commands and don't support objects (this only matters to programmers). One scripting language that can run on both Linux and Windows is PHP.

12. Windows allows programs to store user information (files and settings) anywhere. This makes it impossibly hard to backup user data files and settings and to switch to a new computer. In contrast, Linux stores all user data in the home directory making it much easier to migrate from an old computer to a new one. If home directories are segregated in their own partition, you can even upgrade from one version of Linux to another without having to migrate user data and settings