Linux OS vs. Windows/Mac College Essay Help

[hoth17]

I am writing a college level persuasive paper about the different operating systems. I am interested in what you like and dislike about whichever distro of Linux you use, as well as your opinions on other OS's like Windows 7 and OSX.

My essay will be based on facts, however, I will be including a few paragraphs on the different perspectives of those who use each OS.

On a side not, I use linux, I am not some Windows fan boy. I personally use Fedora 24/7, however, I am playing around with Arch right now.

Any input would be very helpful, thanks!

[GNU-Fan]

What I personally find most interesting is how the operating system GNU/Linux emerged from the fusion of the FreeSoftware community (aka the GNU Project) with the OpenSource community (the Linux kernel). Well, its not actually a fusion, both are still separated entities with different ideals that clash sometimes, but are working together on the same projects often.
Linux and GNU - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)


This is completely different to how Windows and MacOS came into existence, being a purely market driven commercial product of a single company. MacOS is even tied to the hardware of a single vendor.


You can find a lot of opinion essays on:
Essays and Articles - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)
But they have a strong point of view.
As for any good essay, you should collect contradicting opinions as well.


To give a short summary of why I use GNU/Linux: I like the idea of being in control of my computer. And the proprietary alternatives deny me this.

[hazel]

Obviously there are as many reasons for using Linux as there are Linux users, but I think certain ideas come up again and again.

First a lot of people are attracted to the ethical side of free software. They use Linux for the same sorts of reason that they might volunteer their time for charity or use Freecycle. Quite apart from the demerits of Windows as software, there are a lot of people who simply don't like the philosophy of commercial companies like Microsoft.

Then there a lot of people who like the sense of power and control that Linux gives them. Because it is possible to learn how the system works, you feel more in control of your own computer. Also you're not at the mercy of the Microsoft update cycle.

For some people, the comparative security of Linux on the Internet is a powerful argument. Or the choice of so much software.

And some people just like to get something for nothing. They're not so much interested in free speech but they like free beer!

[Rubberman]

I have worked with many operating systems over the years, as a student and as a professional, ranging from Multics, Top-10, VM-370, VMS, many variants of Unix, PC/MS-DOS, UCSD-P System, CPM, CPM/86, QDOS (origin of PC/MS-DOS), QNX (starting at Qunix pre-release version 0.7 up to most recent version of Neutrino), Windows 3.x, Windows NT (thru Vista), and a number of versions of Linux (Gentoo, Mepis, RHEL/CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linspire/Freespire, and others). Each has its place. For example, I would NEVER use any Microsoft OS for enterprise servers, nor Linux for hard real-time systems that have safety critical requirements (nuclear power plant or jet fighter controls, for example). Personally, today I use daily Linux (primary OS), Windows XP (stock trading and UML modeling software mostly), and Solaris (consulting work). My wife who is a PhD particle physicist uses Mac OSX (personal computer and lab workstation), Linux (physics research and data analysis), and Windows (when you hold a gun to her head). Both of us, who make our living designing and writing software (me for enterprise manufacturing systems, my wife for physics data analysis), prefer Linux for software development over any of the other systems we work with regularly. My wife prefers the Mac for audio and video processing, and I like Linux for the same. Neither of us use Windows unless we absolutely have to.

[techieMoe]

I am writing a college level persuasive paper about the different operating systems. I am interested in what you like and dislike about whichever distro of Linux you use, as well as your opinions on other OS's like Windows 7 and OSX.

My essay will be based on facts, however, I will be including a few paragraphs on the different perspectives of those who use each OS.

On a side not, I use linux, I am not some Windows fan boy. I personally use Fedora 24/7, however, I am playing around with Arch right now.

Any input would be very helpful, thanks!

I use Ubuntu Linux and Windows 7 on my laptop at home. I originally started using Linux not out of any high ideals, but for practical reasons. I was in college, and as a programming student I couldn't easily afford the compilers available for Windows. Linux distributions came with GCC built-in (I was using Redhat at the time) and were free of charge.

I've used the Mac OS (7, 8, 9, X) throughout the years and find it elegant and easy for me to be productive on. Unfortunately the hardware on which to run it is prohibitively expensive for me most of the time. The only Macs I've owned in the past have either been gifts from relatives or the result of unusual cashflow (big tax returns).

I've used Windows 7 for about 6 months now and so far I'm impressed with its stability on my hardware. Windows has been and continues to be an expansive platform for games, which is its primary function on my laptop.

[ToMegaTherion]

Ok i'll briefly go through my opinions on each operating system I have used and I will try to offer some level of explaination for each opinion.

Windows
XP - Relyable, Easy to use, Farily stable, recourse friendly, excellent compatiblity with both new and old software. I use it as a duel boot with Linux for the sole purpose of playing certain games that wine dosn't like. 7/10
Vista - Unstable, Ustable, Recource hog, UAC is so F*****g anoying. I used it for a month on my new laptop just to give it a go. 1/10
Windows 7 - I have used the release candidate in recent months on a spare laptop of mine. It is what Vista should have been, but at $400 Australian for a single pro licence microsoft can get F*****D. 6/10

MAC
Im not overly familiar with macs, i have had limited exposure to them and am fairly glad. The software just seems far too specialized to the OS as well as the computer itself being mac specific usually. At least with PC you have a choice. 4/10

Linux
Ever relyable stable and easy to use, and best of all... its free
Ubuntu - I use this distro mainly because I find it the easiest to use. It is easy to find software that is compatible with all other OS's, Compatibility is still sometimes a little buggy, and the support drivers arn't always the best, it however dosn't offer an alternative too gnome. 7/10
Fedora - A good distro once you have it set up but it dose take a lot of mucking around to get used too. It has great driver support though, probably one of the best. 7/10
SuSE - A very good distro, with excellent support for drivers, it is easy to use and offers a very stable fileing system and networking capability. Its easy use an similar layout too windows makes it particularly easy to use, but compatibility is sometime an issue. 6/10
I havn't used any other distros. But if i do I will add to this in future.

[sk565]

First I started out on windows, I loved xp and hated vista. Vista had alot of problems and was in my option unstable. Just like some of the tv ads you may have seen about windows 7 being better. If you got a good copy of xp with recovery options then its great. But if you buy a pc without recovery options then you should be really careful. So that being said, Lets compare linux to windows. Linux has great multi-tasking, Windows on the other hand can be a memory hog at times. Linux works great with hardware turning a old pc back to life again, and you can use just about any distro with it. So in my option seeing that iv always used windows i would say goodbye to it and hello to linux. On the other hand MAC maybe good too, idk cause Iv never tried it.
Why do people say freespire linux is a dead project though, its been updated to 2008 i think ? And I think slax is good too but any of these distro's you will find work differently and are of their own nativity. Many research has been done on my part of various topics but this topic deserves a great deal of discussion. I hope you will find this somewhat helpful, Iv worked many years with computers, but im happy with linux and its free which helped me out a great deal. So maybe hit youtube and watch some videos on the os systems, they will help out alot too.

[daacosta]

I am writing a college level persuasive paper about the different operating systems. I am interested in what you like and dislike about whichever distro of Linux you use, as well as your opinions on other OS's like Windows 7 and OSX.

My essay will be based on facts, however, I will be including a few paragraphs on the different perspectives of those who use each OS.

On a side not, I use linux, I am not some Windows fan boy. I personally use Fedora 24/7, however, I am playing around with Arch right now.

Any input would be very helpful, thanks!

Not to be a bad guy or something but doesn't this qualify as a school homework assignment?

[techieMoe]

Not to be a bad guy or something but doesn't this qualify as a school homework assignment?

Maybe, but this is less of a "Give me the answer to XXX" and more of a "discuss your opinions so I can flesh out a paper." I don't consider that to be against the rules. I'll bow to the majority opinion of the other mods, though.

[Rubberman]

I think that obtaining the perspectives of other Linux users (casual as well as professional) is appropriate since hoth17 has been clear that this is an important aspect of his paper. It doesn't sound like he's asking us to write it for him, so I don't have a problem contributing my experiences and observations.