Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu 12.04 – The Faceoff!!

Surely the title does not justify itself in the eyes of many because ideally there is no comparison between Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04. Windows 7 is a “revolutionary” new (not much new now since Windows 8 is here already) development over Windows Vista that is looked upon as a (buggy?) transition from Windows XP. On the other hand Ubuntu 12.04 is the shining star in the Linux World. The favourite Linux flavour of most Linux users and probably the easiest Linux to install and use! So, lets make a point-by-point comparison of both (I know neither is going to win or lose but still)-

• Who Has More Users? Windows 7 has the largest user base in the entire world today followed by Windows XP and Windows Vista (Oh God, Why ??). Ubuntu has the greatest share of users in the Linux World that is not even close to Win7 but doesn’t actually matter because Linux people measure by quality and not quantity. Still, Windows 7 wins.
• Computer Games.. If you want to play all mainstream games with fantabulous graphics like Battlefield, Call of Duty, Far Cry, etc., you have to have Windows to play them. Linux is slowly growing after Windows in the gaming market but still has a long way to go. Not bad for a community maintained OS! But, Windows 7 wins.
• Ah, Malware! All Windows versions, whatever they claim, are prone to malware attacks. More so because the line between administrator and user is somewhat weakly marked. On the other hand Ubuntu (or any Linux flavour for that matter) provides stringent security measures and even smallest changes require password to be given at various places (not if you run as “root” LOL). This is a legacy from UNIX from which Linux gets its “spirit”. So, Ubuntu 12.04 wins.
• Where’s The Source? Windows 7 is a closed-source software. Nobody knows how does the Windows source code look like (or whatever super secret stuff Microsoft puts in it!). So, complete control on every aspect of it is practically impossible! On the other hand, Ubuntu 12.04 uses Linux kernel that is completely open-source. We can even compile and install the latest kernel ourselves. This gives us COMPLETE control over what runs on it and what not. We can even take the source code and add custom drivers and functionality to Linux ourselves. No doubt, Ubuntu 12.04 wins.
• The Looks.. Who Is Cutest? Windows 7 has an excellent GUI interface that looks very pleasing to the eye and is totally customizable in colour, images, tints, etc., aspects. Ubuntu 12.04 comes with Ubuntu desktop manager by default that is also very nice with an app bar on the left and the usual “Ubuntu-ish” taskbar on the top. But Ubuntu 12.04 is lot more customizable in the sense that we can install numerous desktop managers available for it like Gnome, KDE, XFCE or LXDE to name a few. Obviously, Ubuntu 12.04 wins.
• Need Some Software! Windows 7 has not thousands, but millions of software available either as legacy from Windows XP or before or even some made for Windows 8 (only 32bit ones) as well! On the other hand, while Ubuntu 12.04 also has a massive repository of applications it is still not equal to that of Windows. So, Windows 7 wins.

Okay, so there are still many more factors of confrontation between the two but since Microsoft does not even seem to acknowledge the existence of Linux (still I have heard Mr Gates “congratulating” Ubuntu maintainers once..) and Ubuntu guys don’t care about what-not qualities Windows has, I will close this article here.

After all, without Windows we cannot play our favourite games and without Linux no real hackers can survive. So, they have no comparison to each other. It’s like they are from different worlds and I really think so.