Guide#5 - Operating System 08 Nov 2006 12:07 am
Operating System
 |
And now for what software or programs to run, let’s start off first with Operating Systems. Microsoft Windows XP is the most popular operating system around and mostly don’t even have a clue of the other systems like Linux. We can’t blame them because Microsoft Windows is indeed like a tattoo permanently drawn on people’s minds. Windows was marketed perfectly and so most programs all run on Windows. Plus, Windows is not so complicated to learn and very user-friendly.
The problem though with Windows is that it’s not free. Gone were the days when you can operate an Internet cafe using only a non-genuine copy of the Windows installation. Nowadays you’ve got to have original Windows installed in each of your computers. Lately, Microsoft saw the big demand of internet cafe here in the philippines and thus it released the Internet Cafe Rental Rights Program.
Linux however is free.You can install it to as many computers as you want. The problem is it’s quite complicated to learn. Most people who love this operating system are techies. People are more used to usual Windows programs like Word,Excel,Powerpoint,etc. but if you’re going to use Linux,although it already has bundled office programs,it will be like taking the person to a whole different world. Most people have no time to learn a different application just to type in a document. Although there can be ways to run Windows applications and games through a Linux,that can possibly be drastic for most.If you are a “tinkerer” or a person who likes to “DIY,” then Linux may well be the choice for you. If you “just want it to work” without any fuss, then consider Windows.
Let’s assume that you chose to install Windows.As I’ve said,Microsoft saw the big demand of internet cafe here in the philippines and thus it released the Internet Cafe Rental Rights Program.As stated in http://www.microsoft.com/philippines/internetcafe
“Under the current Microsoft Licensing terms (OEM, Full Packaged Product and Volume License), there is no right to allow a 3rd party other than the customer to use Microsoft software. This means that even after purchasing genuine Microsoft software, you will not legally be able to rent-out the use of Microsoft software. However regularly and therefore would be in breach of your license agreement with Microsoft. The Microsoft Software Rental Agreement for Internet Cafés seeks to rectify this by providing a right to Internet Café owners like yourself to allow 3rd parties to use Microsoft software legally.”
Stores that I know of that resells Windows are PC Bodega and Villman.A genuine copy may be expensive but it’s worth it because it assures of your own business’ legality. You would want to stay legitimate as much as possible. If you’re going to start out with 6 omputers, you should buy 6 copies of Windows.The tutorial I provided on the right side about Basic Network Setup is intended for Windows XP.
Many of you who are reading this article are using Windows as most of the other internet users do. There is a huge difference between the number of users of LINUX and Windows. Some say Windows is much better than LINUX because it gives you an easy handling of the hardware and software. Some say LINUX is much better because it started as Open Source software and that’s why it is much more flexible than Windows. Then why there is a huge market difference between these operating systems?
The answer to this question is quite easy. Since 1985, computer users and programmers became so accustomed to using Windows, even for the changing capabilities and the appearances of the graphical interface of the versions, therefore it always stayed as the product of Microsoft. On the other hand, LINUX has so many different versions from a variety of companies some of which are namely Lycoris, Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Knoppix, Slackware, Lindows. These companies release their own versions of the operating systems with slight changes, and yet always with the same kernel. This variety and the fact that none of these companies are even close to competing with Windows, mostly causes the difference in the market. Nevertheless, this reality might drastically change after Novell’s purchase of SuSE.
Linux and Windows differ in many aspects. First of all, the Linux GUI is optional while the Windows GUI is an integral component of the OS; speed, efficiency and reliability are all increased by running a server instance of Linux without a GUI, something that server versions of Windows can not do. The detached nature of the Linux GUI makes remote control and remote administration of a Linux computer simpler and more natural than a Windows computer.
Secondly the command prompts of these operating systems are quite different. In general, the command interpreters in the Windows 9x series are very similar to each other and the NT class versions of Windows (NT, 2000, XP) also have similar command interpreters. There are, however differences between a Windows 9x command interpreter and one in an NT class flavor of Windows. Linux, like all versions of UNIX, supports multiple command interpreters, but it usually uses one called BASH (Bourne Again Shell). Others are the Korn shell, the Bourne shell, ash and the C shell (pun, no doubt, intended).
The costs are amazingly different. While you have to pay some hundred dollars for a new version of Windows, you can simply go and download Linux. As it comes from the nature of Linux, there are no manuals or simple installers for the free version, however. You really have to know what you are doing while using this free package. There are also some easy automated packages of Linux for low prices, as well.
The security issues with Windows, as most of you already know, are the biggest cons of Microsoft. Most of the malicious files, spyware, adware programs deal with Windows. You generally do not deal with these kinds of unwanted circumstances unless you are working with Windows. The user-id and password protection for Windows can also be easily bypassed, whereas Linux offers a strong protection.
The only area that Windows beats Linux in this “competition” is the software availability. As it was mentioned above, most of the software releases are configured for Windows. If you are using Linux, you have to emulate Windows with a special software and then you can use your windows based programs. Another option can be to install Windows as a subsystem to Linux which takes all administrative abilities of Windows and gives them to Linux.
After mentioning some of the different aspects of these operating systems, it can be said that all Linux needs to compete with Windows is some user friendly interface and a strong company support which can provide the users with technical information and user manuals.
The choice of operating system is entirely up to you whether be a Linux or a Microsoft Windows XP.There have been different distributions of Linux already but there’s now popular one named Ubuntu and said to be the most user-friendly of all Linux distributions.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
