Windows unix linux operating systems

Difference between UNIX and Windows Operating System

In this article, we will be looking into the major difference between UNIX and Windows Operating System.

UNIX :

UNIX is a powerful, multi-user, and multitasking operating system originally developed at AT & T Bell Laboratories. This operating system is very popular among the scientific, engineering, and academic due to its most appreciated features like flexibility, portability, network capabilities, etc.

Windows :

Microsoft window is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) based operating system that provides graphical user-friendly alternatives for most of the command-line based functions. Microsoft introduced a series of versions with the latest functions.

Difference between UNIX and Windows Operating System :

Here we will discuss the various differences between UNIX and Windows operating systems, based on various parameters.

1. Licensing:

UNIX was developed as an open-source OS using C and Assembly languages. Since being open source UNIX, and its various Linux distributions account for the most used OS in the world. Unix and all its Linux distributions are available under the General Public License.

Windows Operating System is proprietary software owned by Microsoft, meaning its source code is not available to the public.

2. User Interface:

Unix operating systems are relatively harder to grasp and produce significant barriers for newcomers. However, some Linux distributions like Ubuntu are changing such perceptions by bringing in more GUI-based applications.

Windows Operating System on the other hand is designed with the outset of keeping the UI as simple and user-friendly as possible, so that non-IT people can easily use computers for their work.

3. Processing:

UNIX operating system supports Multiprocessing, meaning many processes are executed simultaneously. In Multiprocessing, every process has a separate address space and CPUs can be added for increasing computing power.

Windows Support Multithreading, meaning many threads are created from a single process for increasing computing power. In multithreading, many threads of a process are executed simultaneously where common address space is shared by all the threads.

4. File System:

UNIX operating system uses STD.ERR and STD.IO file systems or the UFS (Unix File System) and treats all physical drives as one logical drive. It has a robust and efficient file system. File system is represented as a hierarchical tree under the same root.

Windows on the other hand, uses File Allocation Table (FAT32) and New Technology File System(NTFS) systems for managing files and requires the owner of the executables before executing, files store in folders on different data drive like, C,D,E.

5. Users Accounts:

In the Linux system, there are three types of user accounts:

• Regular: These accounts have the moderate privilege to intended for routine works, it can perform only the task for access only those files and services for which it is authorized.
• Root: This account is the main user account of a Linux system, it has the highest privilege to work administrative level work to manage all the services. This is also known as superusers.
• Service: This account is generally used by services to run the process.

In Windows, there are three types of user accounts:

• Administrator: This account controls all the services and allows user to make changes and check the activities of other users
• Child: This account comes with Family Safety settings which is assigned by the admin.
• Guest: This account has no standard accounts with no privacy, it allows to other people use your computer without being able to change PC settings and install applications.

6. File Name Convention:

In Linux, we can save two files with the same name.

But in windows, we can not save with the same name. It generates errors:

7. Security:

UNIX is more secure by design. The primary protection on a Unix system is that executing a “.exe” file is much more difficult. Here executables cannot be processed without explicit permission as all processes in Unix are treated equally. But these are slowly changing as Unix distributions are moving more towards GUI and now relying on the application security itself.

Another advantage of Unix systems is that getting rid of viruses is easier, as viruses can only infect user accounts and the root remains intact and pure.

Windows is less secure in the sense that it is simple to execute files with minimal permission. These can further lead to the installation of Malwares unknowingly on the system.

8. Data Backup & Recovery:

In the earlier version of UNIX, salvaging data from a system when the device housing the said data is inaccessible, was not possible. But in some distributions of Linux like Ubuntu, a new feature is introduced called Live distribution can be used to recover data from an inaccessible device.

Recovery and Backup of data in the Windows system are much simpler and can be done using its inbuilt GUI for the same. It has an integration with OneDrive for data backup and recovery too.

9. Case Sensitivity:

Unix is completely case-sensitive, meaning the files with names “GFG.txt” and “gfg.txt” can be considered two different files. Windows, on the other hand, have optional case sensitivity.

10. Hardware:

Hardware support is limited in UNIX systems. Some hardware might not have drivers built for them. Windows has almost all the drivers for all the available hardware.

11. Reliability:

Unix is known for being very stable to run. Although the stability of Windows has significantly improved in recent years, most Unix systems are still far superior in this respect.

S. No.	Parameters	UNIX	Windows
1.	Basic	It is a command-based operating system.	It is a menu based operating system.
2.	Licensing	It is an open-source system which can be used to under General Public License.	It is a proprietary software owned by Microsoft.
3.	User Interface	It has a text base interface, making it harder to grasp for newcomers.	It has a Graphical User Interface, making it simpler to use.
4.	Processing	It supports Multiprocessing.	It supports Multithreading.
5.	File System	It uses Unix File System(UFS) that comprises STD.ERR and STD.IO file systems.	It uses File Allocation System (FAT32) and New technology file system(NTFS).
6.	Security	It is more secure as all changes to the system require explicit user permission.	It is less secure compared to UNIX.
7.	Data Backup & Recovery	It is tedious to create a backup and recovery system in UNIX, but it is improving with the introduction of new distributions of Unix.	It has an integrated backup and recovery system that make it simpler to use.
8.	Hardware	Hardware support is limited in UNIX system. Some hardware might not have drivers built for them.	Drivers are available for almost all the hardware.
9.	Reliability	Unix and its distributions are well known for being very stable to run.	Although Windows has been stable in recent years, it is still to match the stability provided by Unix systems.
10.	Case Sensitive	It is fully case-sensitive, and files can be considered separate files.	It has case sensitivity as an option.

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Linux vs Windows: Key Difference Between Them

When we compare file system in Windows and Linux, in Microsoft Windows, files are stored in folders on different data drives like C: D: E:

But, in Linux, files are ordered in a tree structure starting with the root directory.

This root directory can be considered as the start of the file system, and it further branches out various other subdirectories. The root is denoted with a forward slash ‘/’.

A general tree file system on your UNIX may look like this.

Types of Files

In Linux and UNIX, everything is a file. Directories are files, files are files, and devices like Printer, mouse, keyboard etc.are files.

Let’s look into the File types in more detail.

General Files

General Files also called as Ordinary files. They can contain image, video, program or simply text. They can be in ASCII or a Binary format. These are the most commonly used files by Linux Users.

Directory Files

These files are a warehouse for other file types. You can have a directory file within a directory (sub-directory).You can take them as ‘Folders’ found in Windows operating system.

Device Files:

In MS Windows, devices like Printers, CD-ROM, and hard drives are represented as drive letters like G: H:. In Linux, there are represented as files.For example, if the first SATA hard drive had three primary partitions, they would be named and numbered as /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3.

Note: All device files reside in the directory /dev/

All the above file types (including devices) have permissions, which allow a user to read, edit or execute (run) them. This is a powerful Linux/Unix feature. Access restrictions can be applied for different kinds of users, by changing permissions.

Difference between Windows and Linux Users

There are 3 types of users in Linux.

Regular User

A regular user account is created for you when you install Ubuntu on your system. All your files and folders are stored in /home/ which is your home directory. As a regular user, you do not have access to directories of other users.

Root User

Other than your regular account another user account called root is created at the time of installation. The root account is a superuser who can access restricted files, install software and has administrative privileges. Whenever you want to install software, make changes to system files or perform any administrative task on Linux; you need to log in as a root user. Otherwise, for general tasks like playing music and browsing the internet, you can use your regular account.

Service user

Linux is widely used as a Server Operating System. Services such as Apache, Squid, email, etc. have their own individual service accounts. Having service accounts increases the security of your computer. Linux can allow or deny access to various resources depending on the service.

1. You will not see service accounts in Ubuntu Desktop version.
2. Regular accounts are called standard accounts in Ubuntu Desktop

In Windows, there are 4 types of user account types.

Windows Vs. Linux: File Name Convention

In Windows, you cannot have 2 files with the same name in the same folder. See below –

While in Linux, you can have 2 files with the same name in the same directory, provided they use different cases.

Windows Vs. Linux: HOME Directory

For every user in Linux, a directory is created as /home/

Consider, a regular user account “Tom”. He can store his personal files and directories in the directory “/home/tom”. He can’t save files outside his user directory and does not have access to directories of other users. For instance, he cannot access directory “/home/jerry” of another user account”Jerry”.

The concept is similar to C:\Documents and Settings in Windows.

When you boot the Linux operating system, your user directory (from the above example /home/tom) is the default working directory. Hence the directory “/home/tom is also called the Home directory which is a misnomer.

The working directory can be changed using some commands which we will learn later.

Windows Vs. Linux: Other Directories

Comparing Windows vs Linux for other directories, in Windows, System and Program files are usually saved in C: drive. But, in Linux, you would find the system and program files in different directories. For example, the boot files are stored in the /boot directory, and program and software files can be found under /bin, device files in /dev. Below are important Linux Directories and a short description of what they contain.

These are most striking differences between Linux and other Operating Systems. There are more variations you will observe when switching to Linux and we will discuss them as we move along in our tutorials.

Linux vs Windows – Difference Between Them

Here is the main difference between Windows and Linux:

Windows	Linux
Windows uses different data drives like C: D: E to stored files and folders.	Unix/Linux uses a tree like a hierarchical file system.
Windows has different drives like C: D: E	There are no drives in Linux
Hard drives, CD-ROMs, printers are considered as devices	Peripherals like hard drives, CD-ROMs, printers are also considered files in Linux/Unix
There are 4 types of user account types 1) Administrator, 2) Standard, 3) Child, 4) Guest	There are 3 types of user account types 1) Regular, 2) Root and 3) Service Account
Administrator user has all administrative privileges of computers.	Root user is the super user and has all administrative privileges.
In Windows, you cannot have 2 files with the same name in the same folder	Linux file naming convention is case sensitive. Thus, sample and SAMPLE are 2 different files in Linux/Unix operating system.
In windows, My Documents is default home directory.	For every user /home/username directory is created which is called his home directory.

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