Comparison of Linux and Windows

1 Drive Character Differences

Indows the following letter, corresponding to the partition one by one. So, we've seen the C, D, and so on, often corresponding to the first partition, the second partition. Under Linux, these partitions appear as devices, such as/dev/hda1/dev/hda2 and so on, and what we need to do is make these devices one by one correspond to a directory

The most common commands for mounting partitions are mount

Format: Mount [-parameter] [device name] [Mount Point]

Among the parameters commonly used are

• -t< file system type >

  Specifies the file system type of the device, which is common:

  Minix

  The earliest file system used by Linux

  ext2

  Linux currently used file system

  Msdos

  MS-DOS FAT, which is FAT16

  VFAT

  WINDOWS98 Common FAT32

  NFS

  Network File System

  iso9660

  CD-ROM disc standard file system

  NTFS

  file system for Windows NT 2000

  HPFS

  OS/2 File System

  Auto

  Auto-detect file system

• -o< Options >

  Specifies options when mounting the file system. Some are also available in/etc/fstab. Commonly used to have

  Codepage=xxx

  code page

  Iocharset=xxx

  Character

  Ro

  Mount in read-only mode

  rw

  Mount in read-write mode

  Nouser

  Make the general user unable to mount

  User

  Allows the general user to mount the device

1. Set up a mount point in the MNT directory before mounting (preferably a directory).
2. Common mount types: CD is ISO9660, floppy disk is FAT16 or Ext2;windows NT is FAT16, NTFS;WINDOWS98 is FAT16, fat32;windows2000 and WindowsXP are FAT16, FAT32, Ntfs. At present, the kernel can read and write to the FAT partition completely, the NTFS is unreadable and the newest kernel can read and write partially.

2. File System

Unlike those operating systems that build a tree of files for each disk, the entire filesystem of Linux is a huge tree structure. At the top is the "/" (root directory), and all folders, files, and drivers are branches of this root.

For example, you have two hard drives (named A and b), a floppy disk drive, and a CD-ROM with two partitions on the first hard disk (named A1 and A2). Then in Windows, its organization is as follows:

• HDD A, partition one (HDA1): C drive
• HDD A, partition two (HDA2): D drive
• HDD B (HDB1): e-Drive
• Floppy drive: a drive
• Optical drive: F disk

In Linux, you will have only one file system, not the five listed in Windows above. Each disk is mounted to the tree structure and is manipulated to resemble a folder. The organization of each disk can be as follows:

• HDA1: /(root directory)
• HDA2: /Home
• HDB1: /home/user/music
• Floppy drive: /mnt/floppy
• Optical drive: /mnt/cdrom

Our "D" and "E" disks are attached to the "C" drive, so you can switch between different discs without having to go back to the top. All of this changes the action and we go from one folder to another folder consistent. The same is true for floppy and CDROM drives, which are loaded as part of this filesystem in the/mnt directory. In fact, these disks can be loaded almost anywhere on a Linux system, depending on the setup program or the settings of the/etc/fstab file, which tells the computer where to load the things (drive, partition, and so on) and how to handle them.

3. Permissions

Linux supports multiple users and divides the user into groups. Users have read, write, or execute (read,write,execute r/w/x) permissions on their own files, as well as permissions to change those permissions. Because Linux is designed to be multi-user, each user has their own password, which restricts access to their files. These are the so-called user rights.

Each user belongs to one or more groups, and users can set their own file/folder permissions, allowing other users of the same group to read but not write these files, or a combination of other/r/w/x (read/write/execute) three items. This is the group permissions, such as Joe and Susan belong to the Accounting group, so they can allow members of the Accounting group to access their files while restricting members of the Sales group from accessing their own files.

Other permissions can allow or deny access to these files by anyone outside the group. These permissions exist for the security of the entire system, as well as for the security of each user's data. Most home users only need to keep the file's default permissions. (See Figure B)

The root user (not to be confused with the file system/root directory), such as an administrator, who has permission to dispose of all files, is the only user who can change the system global settings. The root user has its own password, which is used for system maintenance. This difference prevents an ordinary user from installing harmful spyware on the system, or deleting important files.

Comparison of Linux and Windows