A CASE STUDY ON WINDOWS & LINUX OS

BY -FAIZ AHAMED.M -110071101025 -CSE A 2nd Year

Microsoft Windows

Company / developer Programmed in OS family Working state Source model Initial release

Microsoft C, C++ and Assembly language Windows 9x, Windows CE and Windows NT Publicly released Closed source / Shared source November 20, 1985; 27 years ago (as Windows 1.0)

Windows 8 NT 6.2 (Build 9200) (October 26, 2012;

Latest stable release
4 months ago)

Windows Server 2012 NT 6.2 (Build 9200) (September 4, 2012; 6

months ago)

Latest unstable release Marketing target

Windows blue (private testing)

Personal computing

Available language(s) Update method Supported platforms

137 languages (listing of available Windows 7 language packs) Windows Update, Windows Anytime Upgrade ARM, IA-32, x86-64 and Itanium Hybrid (Windows NT family), DOS (16bit Windows and Windows 9x/ME series) Graphical (Windows Shell) Proprietary commercial software windows.microsoft.com

Kernel type

Default user interface License Official website

Microsoft Windows is a series of graphical interface operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced in 1984. The most recent client version of Windows is Windows 8; the most recent mobile client version is Windows Phone 8; the most recent server version is Windows Server 2012.

History of Microsoft Windows

In 1983, Microsoft announced the development of Windows, a graphical user interface (GUI) for its own operating system (MS-DOS), which had shipped for IBM PC and compatible computers since 1981. The product line has changed from a GUI product to a modern operating system over two families of design, each with its own codebase and default file system. The 3.x and 4.x family includes Windows 3.0, Windows 3.1x, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME. Windows for Workgroups 3.11 added 32-bit networking and 32-bit disk access. Windows 95 added additional 32-bit capabilities (however, MS-DOS, some of the kernel, and supplementary utilities such as Disk Defragment remained 16-bit) and implemented a new object oriented user interface, elements of which are still used today. The Windows NT family started with Windows NT 3.1 in 1993. Modern Windows operating system versions are based on the newer Windows NT kernel that was originally intended for OS/2. Windows runs on IA32, x86-64, and Itanium processors. Microsoft is also working to bring Windows NT onto ARM in the next release of Windows. Earlier versions also ran on the i860, Alpha, MIPS, Fairchild Clipper, and PowerPC architectures. Some work was done to port it to the SPARC architecture. With Windows NT 4.0 in 1996, the shell changed from Program Manager to Windows Explorer.

Usage share
Source Date All versions Windows 7 Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 8 Windows 2000 Windows NT 4.0 Windows 98 Net Market Share Global Stats W3Counter

February 2013 February 2013 February 2013 91.63% 44.55% 38.99% 5.17% 2.79% 0.06% 0.06% 0.01% 85.86% 52.46% 23.87% 6.37% 3.16% 74.28% 43.69% 22.59% 5.28% 2.72%

Timeline of releases

Windows Versions :
Original line

Windows 1.0 Windows 2.0 Windows 2.1 (Windows/286 and Windows/386) Windows 3.0 Windows 3.1 (with a respective Windows for Workgroups release) Windows 3.11 (also with a respective Windows for Workgroups release) Windows 3.2 (a minor update to 3.1 for Simplified Chinese support)

Windows 9x

Windows 95 (version 4.0) Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE (version 4.1) Windows ME (version 4.9)

Windows NT

Windows NT 3.1 Windows NT 3.5 Windows NT 3.51 Windows NT 4.0 Windows 2000 (NT version 5.0) Windows XP and Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (NT version 5.1) Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (NT version 5.2) Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (NT version 6.0) Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (NT version 6.1) Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 (NT version 6.2)

Windows XP :

Windows XP is available in a number of versions:

Windows XP Home Edition, for home desktops and laptops - lacked features such as joining Active Directory Domain, Remote Desktop Server and Internet Information Services Server. o Windows XP Home Edition N, as above, but without a default installation of Windows Media Player, as mandated by a European Union ruling Windows XP Professional, for business and power users contained all features in Home Edition. o Windows XP Professional N, as above, but without a default installation of Windows Media Player, as mandated by a European Union ruling Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE), released in October 2002 for desktops and notebooks with an emphasis on home entertainment. Contained all features offered in Windows XP Professional and the Windows Media Center. Subsequent versions are the same but have an updated Windows Media Center. o Windows XP Media Center Edition 2003 o Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 o Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, released on 12 October 2004. Included Windows XP Service Pack 2, the Royale Windows Theme and joining a Windows Active Directory Domain is disabled. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, for tablet PCs o Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 Windows XP Embedded, for embedded systems Windows XP Starter Edition, for new computer users in developing countries Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, released on 25 April 2005 for home and workstation systems utilizing 64-bit processors based on the x86-64 instruction set developed by AMD as AMD64; Intel calls their version Intel 64 Windows XP 64-bit Edition, is a version for Intel's Itanium line of processors; maintains 32-bit compatibility solely through a software emulator. It is roughly analogous to Windows XP Professional in features. It was discontinued in September 2005 when the last vendor of Itanium workstations stopped shipping Itanium systems marketed as "Workstations". o Windows XP 64-bit Edition 2003, based on the Windows NT 5.2 codebase.

Windows Vista :

Windows Vista has the Aero theme Windows Vista was released on 8 November 2006 to business customers, consumer versions following on 30 January 2007. Windows Vista intended to have enhanced security by introducing a new restricted user mode called User Account Control, replacing the "administrator-by-default" philosophy of Windows XP. One major difference between Vista and earlier versions of Windows, Windows 95 and later, is that the original start button was replaced with just the Windows icon. Vista also features new graphics features, the Windows Aero GUI, new applications (such as Windows Calendar, Windows DVD Maker and some new games including Chess, Mahjong, and Purble Place), Internet Explorer 7, Windows Media Player 11, and a large number of underlying architectural changes. Windows Vista has the version number NT 6.0. Windows Vista ships in six editions:

Starter (only available in developing countries) Home Basic Home Premium Business Enterprise (only available to large business and enterprise) Ultimate (combines both Home Premium and Enterprise)

All editions (except Starter edition) are currently available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The biggest advantage of the 64-bit version is breaking the 4 gigabyte memory barrier, which 32bit computers cannot fully access.

Windows 7 :

Windows 7 Desktop Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on 22 July 2009, and reached general retail availability on 22 October 2009. It was previously known by the codenames Blackcomb and Vienna. Windows 7 has the version number NT 6.1.

Some features of Windows 7 are faster booting, Device Stage, Windows PowerShell, less obtrusive User Account Control, multi-touch, and improved window management. Features included with Windows Vista and not in Windows 7 include the sidebar (although gadgets remain) and several programs that were removed in favor of downloading their Windows Live counterparts. Windows 7 ships in six editions:

Starter (available worldwide) Home Basic Home Premium Professional Enterprise (available to volume-license business customers only) Ultimate (available to retail market with limited availability to OEMs)

In some countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland), there are other editions that lack some features such as Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center and Internet Explorer called names such as "Windows 7 N." Microsoft focuses on selling Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional. All editions, except the Starter edition, are available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Unlike the corresponding Vista editions, the Professional and Enterprise editions are supersets of the Home Premium edition. At the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2008, Microsoft also announced Windows Server 2008 R2, as the server variant of Windows 7. Windows Server 2008 R2 ships in 64-bit versions (x64 and Itanium) only.

Windows 8 :

Windows logo introduced in 2012 Bootable Windows To Go USB flash drive, one of Windows 8 features

Screenshot of the new Windows 8 Start Screen

Windows 8 is the current version of Microsoft Windows. The Windows RT edition runs on system-on-a-chip devices with mobile ARM processors. Windows 8 features a redesigned user interface, designed to make it easier for touchscreen users to use Windows. The interface includes a full-screen Start screen to replace the Start menu, and a new full-screen application platform. The desktop interface is also present for running windowed applications, although Windows RT will not run any desktop applications not included in the system. On the Building Windows 8 blog, it was announced that a computer running Windows 8 can boot up much faster than Windows 7. New features also include USB 3.0 support, the Windows Store, the ability to run from USB drives with Windows To Go, and others. Windows 8 is available in the following editions:

Windows 8 Windows 8 Pro Windows RT (only pre-installed on ARM tablets) Windows 8 Enterprise

The first public preview of Windows Server 2012 was also shown by Microsoft at the 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. Windows 8 Release Preview and Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate were both released on May 31, 2012. Product development on Windows 8 was completed on August 1, 2012, and it was released to manufacturing the same day. Windows Server 2012 went on sale to the public on September 4, 2012. Windows 8 went on sale October 26, 2012.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Windows

Windows series are excellent products of Microsoft. Although some technology of Windows is not as good as UNIX, they are still of the best operating systems running on PCs. Products of Linux are cheap, but they are not supported by so many kinds of software as Windows series are. It is really a pity that Microsoft developed its operating system on a too large scale. Windows series are large, and are getting larger and larger. If such situation happened on Linux, it would not be as bad as such situation happening on Microsoft. This is because the source code of Linux is open, and they will be debugged by a much larger number of people. Microsoft Windows series are not open-source. They are only debugged by Microsoft itself. See the following to decide whether Windows series are good or not: 1. Windows series are wide spread. 2. Windows series are not very expensive (only for home users on mature products), but more expensive than Linux. 3. Windows series are supported by most popular softwares. 4. Windows series are usually not strong enough for high security. 5. Windows series are buggy. 6. Windows series are big. 7. Windows ME and earlier 9x versions are unstable and insecure. 8. Windows NT series after 2004 are stabler and securer. 9. Source codes of Windows are closed, owned by Microsoft.

Fedora (operating system)

Fedora 18 (Spherical Cow) running GNOME Shell 3.6 Company / developer OS family Fedora Project, (owned by Red Hat, Inc.) Unix-like (based on Red Hat Linux)

Working state Current Source model Free and open source software (with exceptions)

2003-11-16 It was codenamed Yarrow. Fedora Core 1 was based on Red Hat Linux 9 and shipped with version 2.4.19 of Initial release the Linux kernel, version 2.4 of the GNOME desktop environment, and K Desktop Environment 3.1. Latest stable release 18 (Spherical Cow) / 15 January 2013; 2 months ago

Available language(s) Update method Package manager Supported platforms Kernel type Userland Default user interface License Official website

Multilingual

Yum (PackageKit)

RPM Package Manager

i686, x86-64 Monolithic (Linux) GNU GNOME 3 Various free software licenses, plus proprietary binary blobs. www.fedoraproject.org

Fedora (pron.: /fdr./), formerly Fedora Core, is an RPM-based, general purpose collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and owned by Red Hat. The Fedora Project's mission is to lead the advancement of free and open source software and content as a collaborative community. One of Fedora's main objectives is not only to contain software distributed under a free and open source license, but also to be on the leading edge of such technologies. Fedora developers prefer to make upstream changes instead of applying fixes specifically for Fedorathis ensures that their updates are available to all Linux distributions. A version of Fedora has a relatively short life cyclethe maintenance period is only 13 months: there are 6 months between releases, and version X is supported only until 1 month after version X+2. This promotes leading-edge software because it frees developers from some backward compatibility restraints, but it also makes Fedora a poor choice for product development (e.g., embedded systems), which usually requires long-term vendor-support, unavailable with any version of Fedora.

In 2008, Linus Torvalds, author of the Linux kernel, stated that he used Fedora because it had fairly good support for the PowerPC processor architecture, which he had favoured at the time. According to DistroWatch, Fedora is the third most visited Linux-based operating system on their site as of March 2013, behind Mint and Ubuntu, and it is the most visited RPM-based Linux distribution

History
The Fedora Project was created in late 2003, when Red Hat Linux was discontinued. Red Hat Enterprise Linux was to be Red Hat's only officially supported Linux distribution, while Fedora was to be a community distribution. Red Hat Enterprise Linux branches its releases from versions of Fedora. The name of Fedora derives from Fedora Linux, a volunteer project that provided extra software for the Red Hat Linux distribution, and from the characteristic fedora used in Red Hat's "Shadowman" logo. Warren Togami began Fedora Linux in 2002 as an undergraduate project, intended to provide a single repository for well-tested third-party software packages so that nonRed Hat software would be easier to find, develop, and use. The key difference between the approaches of Fedora Linux and Red Hat Linux was that Fedora's repository development would be collaborative with the global volunteer community. Fedora Linux was eventually absorbed into the Fedora Project, carrying with it this collaborative approach. Fedora is a trademark of Red Hat, and although this had previously been disputed by the creators of the unrelated Fedora repository management software, the issue has now been resolved. The Fedora Project is governed by a board whose majority is elected by the Fedora community.

Features of Fedora
Distribution

Fedora's Update Manager

PackageKit, the default package manager front-end on Fedora The Fedora Project distributes Fedora in several different ways:

Fedora DVD/CD set a DVD or CD set of all major Fedora packages at time of shipping; Live images CD or DVD sized images that can be used to create a Live CD or boot from a USB flash drive and optionally install to a hard disk; Minimal CD used for installing over HTTP, FTP or NFS.

The Fedora Project also distributes custom variations of Fedora which are called Fedora spins. These are built from a specific set of software packages and have a combination of software to meet the requirements of a specific kind of end user. Fedora spins are developed by several Fedora special interest groups. It is also possible to create Live USB versions of Fedora using Fedora Live USB creator, UNetbootin or dd. Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) is a volunteer-based community effort from the Fedora project to create a repository of high-quality add-on packages that complement the Fedora-based Red Hat Enterprise Linux and its compatible spinoffs such as CentOS or Scientific Linux. Software package management is primarily handled by the yum utility. Graphical interfaces, such as pirut and pup are provided, as well as puplet, which provides visual notifications in the panel when updates are available. apt-rpm is an alternative to yum, and may be more familiar to people used to Debian or Debianbased distributions, where Advanced Packaging Tool is used to manage packages. Additionally, extra repositories can be added to the system, so that packages not available in Fedora can be installed.

Software repositories :
Fedora comes installed with a wide range of software that includes LibreOffice, Firefox, Empathy. Additional software that is not installed by default can be downloaded using the package manager. Before Fedora 7, there were two main repositories Core and Extras. Fedora Core contained all the base packages that were required by the operating system, as well as other packages that were distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs, and was maintained only by Red Hat developers. Fedora Extras, the secondary repository that was included from Fedora Core 3, was community-maintained and not distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs. Also prior to Fedora 7 being released, there was a third repository called Fedora Legacy. This repository was community-maintained and was mainly concerned with extending the life cycle of older Fedora Core distributions and selected Red Hat Linux releases that were no longer officially maintained. Fedora Legacy was shut down in December 2006. Third party repositories exist that distribute more packages that are not included in Fedora either because it does not meet Fedora's definition of free software or because distribution of that software may violate US law.

Desktops and Spins :

The default desktop in Fedora is the GNOME desktop environment, with Fedora offering the GNOME Shell as its default interface since the release of Fedora 15. Other desktop environments are available from the Fedora package repositories, and can also be installed from the Fedora installer, including the KDE Plasma Workspaces, Xfce, and LXDE desktop environments. In Fedora 18 both the MATE and Cinnamon desktops were made available in the package repositories. In addition, specialized "spins" are available offering these alternative desktops custom configured and offered by default. Other spins are also available targeting specific niche interests, such as gaming, security, design, and robotics.

Security features :
Security is one of the most important features in Fedora. One of the security features in Fedora is Security-Enhanced Linux, a Linux feature that implements a variety of security policies, including mandatory access controls, through the use of Linux Security Modules (LSM) in the Linux kernel. Fedora is one of the distributions leading the way with SELinux. SELinux was introduced in Fedora Core 2. It was disabled by default, as it radically altered how the operating system worked, but was enabled by default in Fedora Core 3 and introduced a less strict, targeted policy.

Releases :
The current release of the operating system is Fedora 18, codenamed "Spherical Cow", which was released on 15 January 2013. Some of the features of Fedora 18 include:

Support for UEFI Secure Boot A rewrite of the Anaconda installer A new system upgrade utility called FedUp Default desktop upgraded to GNOME 3.6.2 Updated to KDE 4.9 and Xfce 4.10 Inclusion of MATE and Cinnamon desktops Better Active Directory support Support for NetworkManager hotspots Support for 256 color terminals by default Offline system updates utilizing systemd and PackageKit Better cloud computing support with the inclusion of Eucalyptus, Heat, and OpenStack Folsom firewalld replaces system-config-firewall as default

Version history :

Fedora Core 1 with the GNOME Desktop and Bluecurve theme

Fedora 17 will be maintained until one month after the release of Fedora 19

Project Name Version 1 2 3 Fedora Core 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Fedora 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Code name Yarrow Tettnang Heidelberg Stentz Bordeaux Zod Moonshine Werewolf Sulphur Cambridge Leonidas Constantine Goddard Laughlin Lovelock Verne Beefy Miracle Spherical Cow

Release date End-of-life date Kernel version 2003-11-05 2004-05-18 2004-11-08 2005-06-13 2006-03-20 2006-10-24 2007-05-31 2007-11-08 2008-05-13 2008-11-25 2009-06-09 2009-11-17 2010-05-25 2010-11-02 2011-05-24 2011-11-08 2012-05-29 2013-01-15 2004-09-20 2005-04-11 2006-01-16 2006-08-07 2007-07-02 2007-12-07 2008-06-13 2009-01-07 2009-07-10 2009-12-18 2010-06-25 2010-12-02 2011-06-04 2011-12-08 2012-06-26 2013-02-12 Mid 2013 Late 2013 2.4.19 2.6.5 2.6.9 2.6.11 2.6.15 2.6.18 2.6.21 2.6.23 2.6.25 2.6.27 2.6.29 2.6.31 2.6.33 2.6.35 2.6.42 3.1.0 3.3.4 3.6.0

Schrdinger's Cat 2013-06-25

Color Red

Meaning Release no longer supported

Green Release still supported Blue Future release

Derivatives :

Notable Fedora Derivative Linux Distributions:

Berry Linux a medium-sized Fedora based distribution that provides support for Japanese and English. BLAG Linux and GNU a stripped down 1-CD Fedora with Debian's APT system. Fuduntu Optimized for netbooks, development headed by Jupiter creator Fewt. Fusion Linux remix with full multimedia support and some influence from Linux Mint Hanthana Linux from Sri Lanka Korora Project is a complete and easy to use system for general computing that just works out of the box. Linpus made by Taiwanese company Linpus Technologies for the Asian market. MythDora based around MythTV's media center capabilities. Ojuba Linux an Arabic Linux distribution. Open Xange is an easy-to-use, Fedora-based desktop Linux distribution featuring the KDE desktop. Red Hat Enterprise Linux enterprise Linux offering from Red Hat, which branches from the current Fedora baseline. Russian Fedora Remix version of Fedora, adapted for Russia. Contains proprietary drivers and software. PLS Linux high client-server-performance version issued by the Government of Venezuela. Moblin a distribution mainly for MIDs, netbooks and embedded devices.

Not active (no release for over 12 months):

Aurora SPARC Linux for the SPARC platform. Linux XP a commercial Linux distribution aimed at replacing Windows XP as a home-use desktop operating system. Yellow Dog Linux for the PowerPC platform.

Comparison of the usage of Windows vs. Fedora

This report shows the usage statistics of Windows vs. Fedora as operating system on the web. See technologies overview for explanations on the methodologies used in the surveys. Our reports are updated daily.

Usage

This diagram shows the percentages of websites using the selected technologies. How to read the diagram: Windows is used by 35.2% of all the websites whose operating system we know.

Usage broken down by ranking

This diagram shows the percentages of websites using the selected technologies broken down by ranking. How to read the diagram: Windows is used by 35.2% of all the websites whose operating system we know. Windows is used by 37.2% of all the websites whose operating system we know and that rank in the top 100.000.

Historical trend

This diagram shows the historical trend in the percentage of websites using the selected technologies. Our dedicated trend survey shows more operating systems usage and market share trends.

Market position
This diagram shows the market position of the selected technologies in terms of popularity and traffic compared to the most popular operating systems. Our dedicated market survey shows more operating systems market data.