Platform Competition: Windows or * nix

Article title: platform competition: Windows or * nix. Linux is a technology channel of the IT lab in China. Includes basic categories such as desktop applications, Linux system management, kernel research, embedded systems, and open source.

Readers may find that the words "If you are using Windows" or "if you are using Linux" often appear in the book. Sometimes such words may even affect your reading. if so, please forgive me. I try to take care of as many readers as possible, but for everyone, there must be a choice-under what platform to develop. The first version of this book uses the Windows platform, and in the second version, I am sincere. Next, you will find that, although in the future, Windows will be taken into account to the maximum extent, but Linux is the default platform in general.

In fact, under what platform development is sometimes purely a matter of taste or environment -- what you use when you get started with computers depends largely on what people around you use, this often has a huge and far-reaching impact on your taste. However, the first contact may not be the most appropriate. after my experience and comparison, I decided to switch from Windows to Linux completely. I would like to explain here why. Please note that this is not a promotion meeting, nor a chapter that you must read when developing your own operating system. I just want to talk about my personal experience and hope to inspire you, at the same time, I want to explain why the second edition has such a change.

I was already using Linux when I was writing the first version, but I didn't use much of it. I felt that I was not used to it. now, after two or three years, I have basically no longer used Windows, in Windows, I am not used to it. My experience has at least two inspirations: first, it is a misunderstanding that Linux is not easy to use (there is a saying that Windows desktop is easier to use, which is a complicated misunderstanding ), it is a habit. Second, if you are interested in using something you are not familiar with, don't give up because you are not used to it at the beginning.

In fact, there are many misunderstandings about Linux and Windows, which I refer to as differences in operating system culture. In fact, when talking about two systems, people often compare specific things. For example, compare their installation process, usage, and even the interface. But what actually hides behind the surface is two completely different types of culture, or different ideas.

For Windows, its culture is rooted in Microsoft's vision of "having a computer on every desktop in every family." Of course they want the computer to run Windows OS. This ideal, coupled with the nature of Windows as a commercial software, determines that Windows has a considerable degree of affinity, and the user interface looks quite friendly. More friendly than ever, it is very friendly to everyone-whether children or the elderly, have received higher education or have only been in elementary school-can easily start to use computers, this is undoubtedly Microsoft's great contribution to this society. But the interface is not necessarily perfect. for now, we will talk about Linux first.

The Linux culture is largely derived from UNIX. The Culture advocated and followed by UNIX is also known as UNIX philosophy, one of the most important principles is "doing one thing and doing it well" [9]. it sounds like it is not the same as Windows interface, but it is actually closely related to careful analysis. Doing one thing and doing well means two things. The first thing is that tools can work together. otherwise, each person does what they do and cannot complete complex applications. The second thing is that interfaces should be unified, otherwise, collaboration fails. This unified interface is text stream, which means that the command line is the core of UNIX culture. Windows practices are quite different, because the interface is friendly, so you cannot expect users to know how to concatenate tools together at the beginning, therefore, Windows selects any application to complete all functions by itself-at least to make the user look like this, which makes every tool independent, thus increasing the complexity and development cost of every program. Not only that, because the functions are set by software developers, you basically cannot expect most programs to be scalable. in UNIX, most programs can work with other programs to complete functions that are not "designed" by the program. This is also the reason why I said "the interface is friendly and not necessarily perfect". there is a price for the friendliness.

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