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08.12.08 Choosing Linux Over Vista  By
Praval Singh
Linux enthusiasts have always touted for Linux to be one of the best operating systems ever. Their voice grew shriller with the advent of Microsoft Windows Vista in the market. There have been quite a few times that a serious problem, posted in some of the forums by a Windows system admin is responded by some enthusiasts in a single phrase - "Install Linux"! This may not be the right solution for the concerned person but it indicates the evangelism aura, Linux has in its periphery. The reasons for such findings are legion - A high price tag for Vista, problems associated with the support of legacy applications on Vista, etc. Without getting into much details, we shall today try and see 5 major reasons why people who prefer Linux over Windows Vista do so. 1. Hardware Requirements: It's never too much for Vista! Linux doesn't require a lot of memory or a good graphics card to get running. However, Vista's system requirements are high. This is evident for the fact that for bare minimum, it needs a processor which is at least a Pentium 4 with 512 MB of RAM. However, you bet if you can run things seamlessly on a Vista machine with a RAM anywhere less than 1GB, which is recommended by Microsoft itself! Vista needs at least 64 MB video RAM and takes up at least 6 GB of disk space. Usually, a Linux distro with a graphical user interface takes up around 1.5-3 GB of disk space. You may do the mathematics now!
Vista's Aero and the GUI as a whole looks pretty indeed, but somehow it fails to make things simple and easy. Does it help find things any faster than Google Desktop Search app or other alternatives which are available for Windows and Linux both? Or does it make an application run any faster? On the other side, it consumes a lot of memory resources, hence slowing down the system, drastically at times. Just to give you an example of resource utilization, Vista uses 256MB of memory just for screen rendering! That is not a minuscule amount considering just graphics. 2. Rights & Limitations: Unlike Vista, Linux doesn't restrict how content is used on a system. Windows Vista comes with an in-built digital rights management (DRM) feature that is absent on Linux machines. The DRM features can cause a lot of problems like - technical support problems, sluggish behavior of the computer, conflict with the peripheral devices and software. The fix for this may be as simple as an online upgrade or as complex as replacing the hardware! Continue reading this article. About the Author: Praval Singh is a contributing writer for Brajeshwar.com. |
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