[Type the document title] Windows XP

Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base. The name "XP" is short for "eXPerience". Windows XP, the successor to Windows 2000 and Windows Me, was the first consumer-oriented operating system produced by Microsoft to be built on the Windows NT kernel. Windows XP was released worldwide for retail sale on October 25, 2001, and over 400 million copies were in use in January 2006. It was succeeded by Windows Vista in January 2007. Direct OEM and retail sales of Windows XP ceased on June 30, 2008. Microsoft continued to sell Windows XP through their System Builders (smaller OEMs who sell assembled computers) program until January 31, 2009. On April 10, 2012, Microsoft reaffirmed that extended support for Windows XP and Office 2003 would end on April 8, 2014 and suggested that administrators begin preparing to migrate to a newer OS. The NT-based versions of Windows, which are programmed in C, C++, and assembly, are known for their improved stability and efficiency over the 9x versions of Microsoft Windows. Windows XP presented a significantly redesigned graphical user interface, a change Microsoft promoted as more user-friendly than previous versions of Windows. A new software management facility called Side-by-Side Assembly was introduced to ameliorate the "DLL hell" that plagued 9x versions of Windows. It is also the first version of Windows to use product activation to combat illegal copying. During Windows XP's development, the project was codenamed "Whistler", after Whistler, British Columbia, as many Microsoft employees skied at the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort. According to web analytics data generated by W3Schools, from September 2003 to July 2011, Windows XP was the most widely used operating system for accessing the w3schools website, which they claim is consistent with statistics from other websites. As of August 2012, Windows XP market share is at 24.8% after having peaked at 76.1% in January 2007.

A screen shot welcome splash

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The two major editions are Windows XP Home Edition, designed for home users, and Windows XP Professional, designed for business and power users. XP Professional contains advanced features that the average home user would not use. However, these features are not necessarily missing from XP Home. They are simply disabled, but are there and can become functional. These releases were made available at retail outlets that sell computer software, and were preinstalled on computers sold by major computer manufacturers. As of mid-2008, both editions continue to be sold. A third edition, called Windows XP Media Center Edition, was introduced in 2002 and was updated every year until 2006 to incorporate new digital media, broadcast television and Media Center Extender capabilities. Unlike the Home and Professional edition, it was never made available for retail purchase, and was typically either sold through OEM channels, or was preinstalled on computers that were typically marketed as "media center PCs". Two different 64-bit editions were made available. One, designed specifically for Itaniumbased workstations, was introduced in 2001 at around the same time as the Home and Professional editions, but was discontinued a few years later when vendors of Itanium hardware stopped selling workstation-class machines due to low sales. The other, called Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, supports the x86-64 extension. x86-64 was implemented first by AMD as "AMD64", found in AMD's Opteron and Athlon 64 chips, and later implemented by Intel as "Intel 64" (formerly known as IA-32e and EM64T), found in some of Intel's Pentium 4 and later chips. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition was produced for a class of specially designed notebook/laptop computers called tablet PCs. It is compatible with a pen-sensitive screen, supporting handwritten notes and portrait-oriented screens. Microsoft also released Windows XP Embedded, an edition for specific consumer electronics, set-top boxes, kiosks/ATMs, medical devices, arcade video games, point-of-sale terminals, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) components. In July 2006, Microsoft released Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, a thin client version of Windows XP Embedded which targets older machines (as early as the original Pentium). It is only available to Software Assurance customers. It is intended for corporate customers who may wish to upgrade to Windows XP so they can take advantage of its security and management capabilities, but cannot afford to purchase new hardware.

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Service packs
Microsoft occasionally releases service packs for its Windows operating systems to fix problems and add features. Each service pack is a superset of all previous service packs and patches so that only the latest service pack needs to be installed, and also includes new revisions, However if you still have the earliest version of Windows XP on Retail CD (without any service packs included), you will need to install SP1 or SP2, before SP3 can be installed. Older service packs need not be manually removed before application of the most recent one. Windows Update "normally" takes care of automatically removing unnecessary files. Windows XP was criticized by some users for security vulnerabilities, tight integration of applications such as Internet Explorer 6 and Windows Media Player, and for aspects of its default user interface. Service Pack 2, Service Pack 3, and Internet Explorer 8 addressed some of these concerns. The service pack details below only apply to the 32-bit editions. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition was based on Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and claimed to be "SP1" in system properties from the initial release. It is updated by the same service packs and hotfixes as the x64 edition of Windows Server 2003.

Service Pack 1

Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows XP was released on September 9, 2002. It contains postRTM security fixes and hot-fixes, compatibility updates , optional .NET Framework support, enabling technologies for new devices such as Tablet PCs, and a new Windows Messenger 4.7 version. The most notable new features were USB 2.0 support and a Set Program Access and Defaults utility that aimed at hiding various middleware products. Users can control the default application for activities such as web browsing and instant messaging, as well as hide access to some of Microsoft's bundled programs. This utility was first brought into the older Windows 2000 operating system with its Service Pack 3. This Service Pack supported SATA and hard drives that were larger than 137 GB (48-bit LBA support) by default. The Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, which was not in the RTM version, appeared in this Service Pack. It also removed the Energy Star logo from the ScreenSaver tab of the Display properties, leaving a very noticeable blank space next to the link to enter the Power Management control panel. Support for IPv6 was also introduced in this Service Pack.On February 3, 2003, Microsoft released Service Pack 1a (SP1a). This release removed Microsoft's Java virtual machine as a result of a lawsuit with Sun Microsystems.
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Service Pack 2
Windows Security Center was added in Service Pack 2. Service Pack 2 (SP2) was released on August 25, 2004, with an emphasis on security. Unlike the previous service pack, SP2 added new functionality to Windows XP, such as WPA encryption compatibility and improved Wi-Fi support (with a wizard utility), a pop-up ad blocker for Internet Explorer 6, and partial Bluetooth support. The new welcome screen during the kernel boot removes the subtitles "Professional", "Home Edition" and "Embedded" since Microsoft introduced new Windows XP editions prior to the release of SP2. The green loading bar in Home Edition and the yellow one in Embedded were replaced with the blue bar, seen in Professional and other versions of Windows XP, making the boot-screen of operating systems resemble each other. Colors in other areas, such as Control Panel and the Help and Support tool, remained as before. Service Pack 2 also added new security enhancements (codenamed "Springboard") which included a major revision to the included firewall that was renamed to Windows Firewall and became enabled by default, Data Execution Prevention, which can be weakly emulated,[clarification needed] gains hardware support in the NX bit that can stop some forms of buffer overflow attacks. Also raw socket support is removed (which supposedly limits the damage done by zombie machines). Additionally, security-related improvements were made to e-mail and web browsing. Windows XP Service Pack 2 includes the Windows Security Center, which provides a general overview of security on the system, including the state of antivirus software, Windows Update, and the new Windows Firewall. Third-party anti-virus and firewall applications can interface with the new Security Center.

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Service Pack 3

Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) was released to manufacturing on April 21, 2008, and to the public via both the Microsoft Download Center and Windows Update on May 6, 2008. began being automatically pushed out to Automatic Update users on July 10, 2008. A feature set overview which details new features available separately as stand-alone updates to Windows XP, as well as backported features from Windows Vista, has been posted by Microsoft. A total of 1,174 fixes have been included in SP3. Service Pack 3 can be installed on systems with Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, or 8.Internet Explorer 7 and 8 are not included as part of SP3.

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System requirements
System requirements for Windows XP Home Edition and Professional are as follows:

Optical drive Input devices Sound

CD-ROM drive[90] (Only to install from CD-ROM media) Keyboard, Microsoft Mouse or a compatible pointing device Sound card and Speakers or headphones

^1 Even though this is Microsoft's stated minimum processor speed for Windows XP, it is possible to install and run the operating system on early IA-32 processors such as a P5 Pentium without MMX instructions. Windows XP is not compatible with processors older than Pentium (such as 486) because it requires CMPXCHG8B instructions.[91] ^2 A Microsoft TechNet paper from Summer 2001 (before Windows XP's actual release), states that: "A computer with 64 MB of RAM will have sufficient resources to run Windows XP and a few applications with moderate memory requirements." (Emphasis added.) These were said to be office productivity applications, e-mail programs, and web browsers (of the time). With such a configuration, user interface enhancements and fast user switching are turned off by default. For comparable workloads, 64 MB of RAM was then regarded as providing an equal or better user experience on Windows XP with similar settings than it would with Windows Me on the same hardware. In a later section of the paper, superior performance over Windows Me was noted with 128 MB of RAM or more, and with computers that exceed the minimum hardware requirements.

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Minimum Processor Memory Video adapter and monitor

Recommended

233 MHz At least 300 MHz 64 MB of RAM At least 128 MB of RAM Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution 1.5 GB or higher additional 661 MB for Service Pack 1 and 1a[87] Hard drive disk free space additional 1.8 GB for Service Pack 2[88] [78][89] and additional 900 MB for Service Pack 3 CD-ROM drive[90] (Only to install from CD-ROM media) Optical drive Keyboard, Microsoft Mouse or a compatible pointing Input devices device Sound card and Speakers or headphones Sound ^1 Even though this is Microsoft's stated minimum processor speed for Windows XP, it is possible to install and run the operating system on early IA-32 processors such as a P5 Pentium without MMX instructions. Windows XP is not compatible with processors older than Pentium (such as 486) because it requires CMPXCHG8B instructions.[91] ^2 A Microsoft TechNet paper from Summer 2001 (before Windows XP's actual release), states that: "A computer with 64 MB of RAM will have sufficient resources
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to run Windows XP and a few applications with moderate memory requirements." (Emphasis added.) These were said to be office productivity applications, e-mail programs, and web browsers (of the time). With such a configuration, user interface enhancements and fast user switching are turned off by default. For comparable workloads, 64 MB of RAM was then regarded as providing an equal or better user experience on Windows XP with similar settings than it would with Windows Me on the same hardware. In a later section of the paper, superior performance over Windows Me was noted with 128 MB of RAM or more, and with computers that exceed the minimum hardware requirements.[92] System requirements for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition are as follows:[93]

Processor: x86-64 processor; Memory: At least 256 MB of RAM; Video adapter and monitor: Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution; Hard drive disk free space: At least 1.5 GB;[85] Optical drive: CD-ROM drive;[90]

Input devices: Keyboard; Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device; Sound: Sound card; Speakers or headphones; Drivers for sound card, GPU of video card, wired LAN card, etc. must be designed for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

System requirements for Windows XP 64-Bit Edition are as follows:[94][95]

Processor: Intel Itanium 733 MHz (Recommended: Intel Itanium 800 MHz or better); Memory: At least 1 GB of RAM; Video adapter and monitor: Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution; Hard drive disk free space: At least 6 GB; Optical drive: CD-ROM drive;[90] Input devices: Keyboard; Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device; Sound: Sound card; Speakers or headphones; Drivers for sound card, GPU of video card, wired LAN card, etc. must be designed for Windows XP 64-Bit Edition.

Physical memory limits

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Maximum limits on physical memory (RAM) that Windows XP can address vary depending on both the Windows version and between 32-bit and 64-bit versions.[96][97] The following table specifies the maximum physical memory limits supported:

Physical memory limits for Windows XP versions[96][97]

Version Limit in 32-bit Windows Limit in 64-bit Windows Windows XP Professional 128 GB Windows XP Home Edition 4 GB Windows XP Media Center Edition N/A Windows XP Tablet PC Edition Windows XP Starter Edition 512 MB

Processor limits
The maximum total quantity of logical processors[98] in a PC that Windows XP supports is: 32 for 32-bit;[99][100] 64 for 64-bit.[101][102] The maximum quantity of physical processors in a PC that Windows XP supports: is 2 for Professional;[103] and 1 for the Home Edition.[104]

Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of Linux is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released 5 October 1991 by Linus Torvalds.[11][12] Linux was originally developed as a free operating system for Intel x86-based personal computers. It has since been ported to more computer hardware platforms than any other operating system. It is a leading operating system on servers and other big iron systems such as mainframe computers and supercomputers:[13][14][15][16] more than 90% of today's 500 fastest supercomputers run some variant of Linux,[17] including the 10 fastest.[18] Linux also runs on embedded systems (devices where the operating system is typically built into the firmware and highly tailored to the system) such as mobile phones, tablet computers, network routers, televisions[19][20] and video game consoles; the Android system in wide use on mobile devices is built on the Linux kernel. The development of Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration: the underlying source code may be used, modified, and distributed
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commercially or non-commerciallyby anyone under licenses such as the GNU General Public License. Typically Linux is packaged in a format known as a Linux distribution for desktop and server use. Some popular mainstream Linux distributions include Debian (and its derivatives such as Ubuntu), Fedora and openSUSE. Linux distributions include the Linux kernel, supporting utilities and libraries and usually a large amount of application software to fulfill the distribution's intended use. A distribution oriented toward desktop use will typically include the X Window System and an accompanying desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE Plasma. Some such distributions may include a less resource intensive desktop such as LXDE or Xfce for use on older or less powerful computers. A distribution intended to run as a server may omit all graphical environments from the standard install and instead include other software such as the Apache HTTP Server and an SSH server such as OpenSSH. Because Linux is freely redistributable, anyone may create a distribution for any intended use. Applications commonly used with desktop Linux systems include the Mozilla Firefox web browser, the LibreOffice office application suite, and the GIMP image editor. Since the main supporting user space system tools and libraries originated in the GNU Project, initiated in 1983 by Richard Stallman, the Free Software Foundation prefers the name GNU/Linux.

Design

A Linux-based system is a modular Unix-like operating system. It derives much of its basic design from principles established in Unix during the 1970s and 1980s. Such a system uses a monolithic kernel, the Linux kernel, which handles process control, networking, and peripheral and file system access. Device drivers are either integrated directly with the kernel or added as modules loaded while the system is running. Separate projects that interface with the kernel provide much of the system's higher-level functionality. The GNU userland is an important part of most Linux-based systems, providing the most common implementation of the C library, a popular shell, and many of the common Unix tools which carry out many basic operating system tasks. The graphical user interface
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(or GUI) used by most Linux systems is built on top of an implementation of the X Window System. Some components of an installed Linux system are:

A bootloader - for example GRUB or LILO. This is a program which is executed by the computer when it is first turned on, and loads the Linux kernel into memory. An init program. This is a process launched by the Linux kernel, and is at the root of the process tree: in other terms, all processes are launched through init. It starts processes such as system services and login prompts (whether graphical or in terminal mode) Software libraries which contain code which can be used by running processes. On Linux systems using ELF-format executable files, the dynamic linker which manages use of libraries is "ld-linux.so". The most commonly used software library on Linux systems is the GNU C Library. User interface programs such as command shells or windowing environments

User interface
This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2011) See also: User interface Users operate a Linux-based system through a command line interface (CLI), a graphical user interface (GUI), or through controls attached to the associated hardware, which is common for embedded systems. For desktop systems, the default mode is usually a graphical user interface, by which the CLI is available through terminal emulator windows or on a separate virtual console. Most low-level Linux components, including the GNU userland, use the CLI exclusively. The CLI is particularly suited for automation of repetitive or delayed tasks, and provides very simple inter-process communication. A graphical terminal emulator program is often used to access the CLI from a Linux desktop. A Linux system typically implements a
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CLI by a shell, which is also the traditional way of interacting with a Unix system. A Linux distribution specialized for servers may use the CLI as its only interface. On desktop systems, the most popular user interfaces are the extensive desktop environments KDE Plasma Desktop, GNOME, and Xfce,[53] though a variety of additional user interfaces exist. Most popular user interfaces are based on the X Window System, often simply called "X". It provides network transparency and permits a graphical application running on one system to be displayed on another where a user may interact with the application.[54] Other GUIs may be classified as simple X window managers, such as FVWM, Enlightenment, and Window Maker, which provide a minimalist functionality with respect to the desktop environments. A window manager provides a means to control the placement and appearance of individual application windows, and interacts with the X Window System. The desktop environments include window managers as part of their standard installations (Mutter for GNOME, KWin for KDE, Xfwm for Xfce as of January 2012) although users may choose to use a different window manager if preferred.

Simplified history of Unix-like operating systems. Linux shares similar architecture and concepts (as part of the POSIX standard) but does not share non-free source code with the original Unix or MINIX. Main article: Linux distribution

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Programming on Linux
Most Linux distributions support dozens of programming languages. The original development tools used for building both Linux applications and operating system programs are found within the GNU toolchain, which includes the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and the GNU build system. Amongst others, GCC provides compilers for Ada, C, C++, Java, and Fortran. First released in 2003, the Low Level Virtual Machine project provides an
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alternative open-source compiler for many languages. Proprietary compilers for Linux include the Intel C++ Compiler, Sun Studio, and IBM XL C/C++ Compiler. BASIC in the form of Visual Basic is supported in such forms as Gambas, FreeBASIC, and XBasic, and in terms of terminal programming or QuickBASIC or Turbo BASIC programming in the form of QB64. Most distributions also include support for PHP, Perl, Ruby, Python and other dynamic languages. While not as common, Linux also supports C# (via Mono), Vala, and Scheme. A number of Java Virtual Machines and development kits run on Linux, including the original Sun Microsystems JVM (HotSpot), and IBM's J2SE RE, as well as many open-source projects like Kaffe and JikesRVM. GNOME and KDE are popular desktop environments and provide a framework for developing applications. These projects are based on the GTK+ and Qt widget toolkits, respectively, which can also be used independently of the larger framework. Both support a wide variety of languages. There are a number of Integrated development environments available including Anjuta, Code::Blocks, CodeLite, Eclipse, Geany, ActiveState Komodo, KDevelop, Lazarus, MonoDevelop, NetBeans, Qt Creator and Omnis Studio, while the longestablished editors Vim and Emacs remain popular.[

Uses
As well as those designed for general purpose use on desktops and servers, distributions may be specialized for different purposes including: computer architecture support, embedded systems, stability, security, localization to a specific region or language, targeting of specific user groups, support for real-time applications, or commitment to a given desktop environment. Furthermore, some distributions deliberately include only free software.
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Currently, over three hundred distributions are actively developed, with about a dozen distributions being most popular for general-purpose use.[64] Linux is a widely ported operating system kernel. The Linux kernel runs on a highly diverse range of computer architectures: in the hand-held ARM-based iPAQ and the mainframe IBM System z9, System z10; in devices ranging from mobile phones to supercomputers.[65] Specialized distributions exist for less mainstream architectures. The ELKS kernel fork can run on Intel 8086 or Intel 80286 16-bit microprocessors, while the Clinux kernel fork may run on systems without a memory management unit. The kernel also runs on architectures that were only ever intended to use a manufacturer-created operating system, such as Macintosh computers (with both PowerPC and Intel processors), PDAs, video game consoles, portable music players, and mobile phones. There are several industry associations and hardware conferences devoted to maintaining and improving support for diverse hardware under Linux, such as FreedomHEC.

Desktop
Main article: Desktop Linux The popularity of Linux on standard desktop computers and laptops has been increasing over the years.[66] Currently most distributions include a graphical user environment, with the two most popular environments being GNOME (which can utilize additional shells such as the default GNOME Shell and Ubuntu Unity), and the KDE Plasma Desktop.[citation needed] The performance of Linux on the desktop has been a controversial topic; for example in 2007 Con Kolivas accused the Linux community of favoring performance on servers. He quit Linux kernel development because he was frustrated with this lack of focus on the desktop, and then gave a "tell all" interview on the topic.[67] Since then a significant amount of development has been undertaken in an effort to improve the desktop experience. Projects such as Upstart and systemd aim for a faster boot time. Many popular applications are available for a wide variety of operating systems. For example Mozilla Firefox, OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice and Blender have downloadable versions for all major operating systems. Furthermore, some applications were initially developed for Linux, such as Pidgin, and GIMP, and were ported to other operating systems including Windows and Mac OS X due to their popularity. In addition, a growing number of proprietary desktop applications are also supported on Linux;[68] see List of proprietary software for Linux. In the field of animation and visual effects, most high end software, such as Autodesk Maya, Softimage XSI and Apple Shake, is available for Linux, Windows and/or Mac OS X. There are also several companies that have ported their own or other companies' games to Linux. Many types of applications available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X are also available for Linux. Commonly, either a free software application will exist which does the functions of an application found on another operating system, or that application will have a version that works on Linux, such as with Skype and some video games.[citation needed] Furthermore, the Wine project provides a Windows compatibility layer to run unmodified Windows applications on Linux. CrossOver is a proprietary solution based on the open source Wine project that supports running Windows versions of Microsoft Office, Intuit applications such as Quicken and QuickBooks, Adobe Photoshop versions through CS2, and
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many popular games such as World of Warcraft and Team Fortress 2. In other cases, where there is no Linux port of some software in areas such as desktop publishing[69] and professional audio,[70][71][72] there is equivalent software available on Linux. The collaborative nature of free software development allows distributed teams to perform language localization of some Linux distributions for use in locales where localizing proprietary systems would not be cost-effective. For example the Sinhalese language version of the Knoppix distribution was available significantly before Microsoft Windows XP was translated to Sinhalese.[citation needed] In this case the Lanka Linux User Group played a major part in developing the localized system by combining the knowledge of university professors, linguists, and local developers. Installing, updating and removing software in Linux is typically done through the use of package managers such as the Synaptic Package Manager, PackageKit, and Yum Extender. While most major Linux distributions have extensive repositories, often containing tens of thousands of packages, not all the software that can run on Linux is available from the official repositories. Alternatively, users can install packages from unofficial repositories, download pre-compiled packages directly from websites, or compile the source code by themselves. All these methods come with different degrees of difficulty; compiling the source code is in general considered a challenging process for new Linux users, but it's hardly needed in modern distributions and is not a method specific to Linux.

GNOME Shell

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KDE Plasma Desktop

Unity

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LXDE

Servers, mainframes and supercomputers

Linux distributions have long been used as server operating systems, and have risen to prominence in that area; Netcraft reported in September 2006 that eight of the ten most reliable internet hosting companies ran Linux distributions on their web servers.[73] Since June 2008, Linux distributions represented five of the top ten, FreeBSD three of ten, and Microsoft two of ten;[74] since February 2010, Linux distributions represented six of the top ten, FreeBSD two of ten, and Microsoft one of ten.[75] Linux distributions are the cornerstone of the LAMP server-software combination (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python) which has achieved popularity among developers, and which is one of the more common platforms for website hosting.[76] Linux distributions have become increasingly popular on mainframes in the last decade partly due to pricing and the open-source model.[16][citation needed] In December 2009, computer giant IBM reported that it would predominantly market and sell mainframe-based Enterprise Linux Server.[77] Linux distributions are also commonly used as operating systems for supercomputers: since November 2010, out of the top 500 systems, 459 (91.8%) run a Linux distribution.[78] Linux was also selected as the operating system for the world's most powerful supercomputer, IBM's Sequoia which was scheduled to become operational in 2011.[79][clarification needed]

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Embedded devices
See also: Embedded Linux and Linux devices

Due to its low cost and ease of customization, Linux is often used in embedded systems. Androidbased on a modified version of the Linux kernelhas become a major competitor of Nokia's older Symbian OS, found in many smartphones. During the third quarter of 2010, 25.5% of smartphones sold worldwide used Android (with all Linux variants forming 27.6% of the total during that time).[80] Cell phones and PDAs running Linux on open-source platforms became more common from 2007; examples include the Nokia N810, Openmoko's Neo1973, and the Motorola ROKR E8. Continuing the trend, Palm (later acquired by HP) produced a new Linux-derived operating system, webOS, which is built into its new line of Palm Pre smartphones. The popular TiVo digital video recorder also uses a customized Linux,[81] as do several network firewalls and routers from such makers as Cisco/Linksys. The Korg OASYS, the Korg KRONOS, the Yamaha Yamaha Motif XS/Motif XF music workstations,[82] Yamaha S90XS/S70XS, Yamaha MOX6/MOX8 synthesizers, Yamaha Motif-Rack XS tone generator module, and Roland RD-700GX digital piano also run Linux. Linux is also used in stage lighting control systems, such as the WholeHogIII console.[83]

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Differences Between Linux Security & Windows Security

Security between two popular operating systems that inhabit the computers of the world is a widely debated topic. Windows is a closed system and obviously the more well-known party of the two contenders. Linux is a free operating system that works on a UNIX platform. This essentially means everyone can have it and everyone helps maintain it. Securing your computer system may be something you think about often. Comparing the two might give you some insight to security matters for your home or office computer.

Viruses

It is a well-known fact that malware programs plague Microsoft Windows. When discussing security issues, one must consider the likelihood of infection. According to Kaspersky Lab, Windows has effectively become the standard for malware creators. This is due in a large part to market share. It makes more sense to target the Windows operating systems. They inhabit far more computers than the Linux system. The goals of hackers also differ between the two components. For Windows, a hacker wants to take over the computer. This enables the creator of the virus to obtain credit card and password details. In a UNIX system, such as Linux, the hackers appear to have other goals. Since a large number of individuals have access to the scripting for Linux operating systems, hackers insert programs that have no real effect as a test to see how long it takes before someone realizes the code has been hacked.

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Open vs. Closed

Windows is a closed platform. Essentially, that means only the developers at Microsoft really know how the application works. The exception to this rule would be
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the hobbyists who have created programs that allow them to look inside the operating system applications and see how they tick. Linux is as open source software program. Anyone with programming experience is welcome to contribute to the structure of the system. This leads to much speculation about the security. Closed-source software means that no one can fix problems but the employed programmers at Microsoft. The average home consumer must trust them to do the right thing regarding security. With Linux, the code is available for all to see. There is safety in numbers. With all eyes watching, security holes fill without the big corporate secrets but the question of quality remains. Are the people providing the fixes for the Linux system qualified?

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Response to Issues

Microsoft releases patches and critical bug fixes once a month. Each security update must go through extensive programming and testing before bugs and security holes are fixed. This leaves many open problems in the computers with a Windows system. The open platform of Linux creates a faster reporting process. Patches still take time, but a wider audience is working on them at any given time. The difference is weeks for Microsoft and possibly days for Linux. The patches for Windows are run through more vigorous testing, making them more reliable. Linux patches are quicker but not as well processed. Linux does run through testing procedures before releasing new platforms but this system relies heavily on input from users to find problems and create fixes.

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Linux File System vs Windows File System A file system (also known as filesystem) is a technique for storing data in an organized and a human-readable form. The basic unit of a data file system is called a file. A file system is a very important component residing in most data storage devices like hard drives, CDs and DVDs. A file system helps the devices to maintain the physical location of the files. Furthermore, a file system can allow its files to be accessed from a network by becoming a client to network protocols like NFS. What is Windows File System? Windows mainly support FAT (File Allocation Table) and NTFS (New Technology File system). Windows NT 4.0, Windows 200, Windows XP, Windows .NET server and Windows workstation use NTFS as their preferred file system. Still, FAT can be used with floppy disks and older Windows versions (for multi-boot systems). FAT is the initial file system used in Windows. FAT was used with DOS, and its three versions are FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32. The number of bits used to identify a cluster is the number that is used as the suffix in the name. FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32 have 32MB, 4GB and 32GB as the maximum partition sizes. NTFS has completely different data organization architecture. Basically, Microsoft developed NTFS to compete with UNIX, by replacing the much more simple FAT. However, the newest FAT version called exFAT is claimed to have certain advantages over NTFS. A FAT partition can be easily converted to a NTFS partition without loosing data. NTFS supports features like indexing, quota tracking, encryption, compression and repair points. Windows uses drive letter to distinguish partitions. Traditionally, The C drive is the primary partition. Primary partition is used to install and boot Windows. Drive letter can be used for mapping network drives as well. What is Linux File System? A variety of files systems can be sued with Linux. Commonly used file systems are ext* family (ext, ext2, ext3 and ext4) and XFS. Silicon Graphics developed XFS, which is a journaling system with high performance. The ext (extended file system) was developed in early 1990s. It was the first file system used in Linux operating system. Remy Card developed it by getting inspiration from the UFS (UNIX File System). On Linux, everything is a file. If something is not a file, then it is a process. Programs, audio, video, I/O devices and other devices are considered as files. In Linux, there is no difference between a file and a directory. A directory is simply a file containing names of a set of other
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files. Special files are a mechanism used for I/O (found in /dev). Sockets (another special file type) provide inter-process communication. Named pipes (much like sockets) are used for inter-process communication without network semantics. What is the difference between Linux File System support and Windows File System support? Windows uses FAT and NTFS as file systems, while Linux uses a variety of file systems. Unlike Windows, Linux is bootable from a network drive. In contrast to Windows, everything is either a file or a process in Linux. Linux has two kinds of major partitions called data partitions and swap partitions. Because of the existence of swap partitions, you never run out of memory in Linux (like in windows). In terms of recovery tools, only a limited number of tools can be used on Windows, while there is a large number of UNIX based recovery tools available for Linux file systems.

The majority of Linux variants are available for free or at a much lower price than Microsoft Windows.

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