Differences between version 8 and previous revision of LinuxIsNotWindows.
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| Newer page: | version 8 | Last edited on Monday, June 1, 2009 2:21:04 pm | by LawrenceDoliveiro | Revert |
| Older page: | version 7 | Last edited on Tuesday, November 2, 2004 4:14:39 am | by AristotlePagaltzis | Revert |
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
[SelectingADistribution] notes that a number of LinuxDistribution~s that exist only as "desktop Linux" do nothing but try to be [Windows]. As soon as you get past this mentality and realise that you are not locked down into simply trying to ape [Windows], you'll get much further with [Linux]. That's what makes [MacOSX] so successful, too. Important differences between [Linux] and [Windows]:
* Linux is built on the CommandLine and the UnixWay. If you can do something in a graphical program, chances there is a scriptable text mode way of doing the same thing, probably using the same library.
* You should never have to reboot unless you're replacing your [Kernel] or shutting down the machine to change hardware. If your hardware supports HotPlug, you can even switch hardware with a running system, un/load the relevant [Kernel] [Module]s, and keep going as if nothing ever happened. Try that on [Windows].
-* Software won't just stop working for no apparent reason, requiring a reinstall.
+* No [Registry|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Registry]. As per the FileSystemHierarchy, system configuration files are kept in <tt>/etc</tt>, with separate directories and files for separate subsystems. Per-user configs are kept in the users’ home directories, so they won’t be wiped on an OS upgrade. Most config files are plain-text files, and can be managed with standard text editors and file-manipulation utilities. For instance, it’s easy to backup and restore a set of config files, and use the diff(1) utility to see exactly what’s been changed.
+
* Software won't just stop working [
for no apparent reason|WindowsRot]
, requiring a reinstall.
* You (can) know precisely what your computer is doing at every point.
* You can look at a process list and be able to name exactly what all the processes are, what they are doing, what the consequences of shutting them down would be, f.ex:
* Shutting down cron(8) would mean scheduled tasks would not be actioned.
* Shutting down inetd(8) would mean that many network servers would not be available.
