6 Advantages of Linux over Windows and Mac OS X | Computer Basics

Linux is an Operating System whose various Distros are used everywhere in the enterprise environments

but sadly it’s immense potential has been largely ignored in the Desktop Operating System market.

If the 2022 reports of Desktop Operating System Market Share is to be believed,

the share of Linux is less that 2.5% which is nowhere near Windows (74.79%) and Mac OS X (15.38%).

With how powerful and user-centric Linux is, it really is quite shocking to see such figures.

So, In this Article, i’ve jotted down 6 Advantages of Linux over Windows and Mac OS X

to educate people and spread words about Linux as an Desktop Operating System.

So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Linux Is Completely Open Source and Free To Use | it’s GNU License

Free as in Freedom, that is what Linux is.

It is completely free to use as opposed to Windows and MacOS X

for which you need to buy a license from Microsoft or Apple respectively.

It is also completely Open Source, thus giving it’s user full access to it’s source code.

This makes it highly auditable to make sure no funny business is happening with the code base.

Most Linux Distros Can Run On Old Hardware as they can be extremely lightweight

Linux Distributions have a variety of different Desktop Environments available like

• Xfce
• Mate
• Cinnamon
• KDE
• Gnome
• and more

which all have different memory footprints from extremely lightweight to marginally heavy,

but from what i’ve seen, a Completely Functional Linux Distro at idle can be using as little as 400 MB of Memory,

with a lot of Linux Distros that focus on beautiful UX and UI using around 750 MB of memory at idle.

Taking Manjaro as an example, on it’s Recommended Specs List you will find

• 1 Gigabyte (GB) of Memory
• 30 Gigabytes (GB) of Hard Disk space
• 1 Gigahertz (Ghz) Processor
• High Definition (HD) Graphics Card
• Monitor
• Internet connection

And yes, it is Recommended System Requirements and not Minimum System Requirements

The system actually idles at much lower than these Recommended Requirements.

So, you might be able to see that Linux will definitely be a much better option for Older Hardware

which is limited in amount of RAM and Processing Power

because using Windows or MacOS X on Old Hardware will result in much worse performance

and that is if you Hardware even supports the Basic Requirements like TPM 2.0 needed to install Windows 11.

Linux is Extremely Customizable | Users can customize anything and everything

Just as i said in the last point, Linux has a lot of Desktop Environments each focused on different things

Some focus on being extremely lightweight and snappy like Xfce

while some like KDE Plasma focus on having a really beautiful looking User Interface

But all these Desktop Environments have one thing in common and that is

they let the users customize them to the point where you might not even be able to see what the Base Desktop Environment was.

This is something that you can’t find in either Windows or MacOS X.

Yes, Windows and MacOS X do allow some changes like changing accent color for Task Bar and Title Bar

or changing the Wallpaper and Login Screen Background

but that’s about it.

You will not find anything as Customizable as Linux and that’s one of the feature which can be really enticing.

Most Linux Distros are extremely Private | No Collection of User Data

Most users hate it when software developers collect their data to profile them

and to be honest it has become a huge pain in the recent years,

with Microsoft going towards that Revenue Model for their Operating System.

The disturbing drive of data collection and hoarding of said data by companies

to analyse, take apart and profile the users has become something that you can’t run away from.

This is quite sad to see, as now you can’t even trust your own computer

because even the Operating System which is the base of your computer

is also spying on you continuously and sending this information to it’s overlords.

This is where Linux comes in, as a huge amount of people switching to Linux are doing so because of Privacy Concerns

and it’s Privacy Aware Community does an excellent job to push back this insane practice.

Almost no Linux Distro has any sort of Data Collection, so you can rest assured that you are in a completely private environment.

Even when some Distros do collect data, the user will mostly need to Opt-In to it

and it will largely just be Diagnostic Data without any personal identifiers and location info.

Users Can install Linux without Unwanted Bloatware and Unremovable Softwares

Windows comes with unnecessary applications being forced down your throat

even when you have no need of these unwanted applications, like

• Cortana
• Candy Crush
• One Note
• Skype
• Microsoft Office 360
• and more

On top of that some applications like Cortana are designed in such a way

that they can’t be removed from the system at all.

After all, you wouldn’t want to remove the software

that is know to extensively collect user data now, would you?

Thankfully this is not the case for Linux Distros,

as not only most distros don’t have anything that a regular Windows User will consider ‘Bloat’

but also every single component that you want to remove from your computer

can be removed with just a click of button or a terminal command.

Has A Strong Community Supporting it’s Free and Open Source Nature

This point is extremely important as something so Huge, Open Source and Free

can’t be sustained without the backing of a dedicated community

which is willing to give their time and effort towards something

that is not going to bring them any direct profit.

Now, i’m not saying that everything is rosy

and that there is not a fair share of bad eggs in the Linux Community

but what i can say is that, there are enough good ones out there

who are trying there best to make Linux better everyday for everyone involved

and to people like this, all i can say is,

Thank You!

Conclusion

Well Folks! That does it for this article.

I hope that you found this information useful and that you will consider Linux as an option

if you ever think about changing you Desktop Operating System.

May you have success in your career whatever it may be.

See you again in the upcoming articles!

Share this post on Social Media platforms, if you think our content is great.

If you like the content and would like to follow us, we are present on the platforms below

Follow Us On Social Media

Goodbye For Now,
This is your host VP
Signing Off.