When I refer to Linux, I am referring to a computer with the kernel and other software that makes up a Personal Computer.
I like to think that Linux is great, and always will be, a Personal Computer. Windows, I will always remember it being the best thing for business’s as Microsoft pushes licenses and such business related features.
I switched to Linux in 2020, Ubuntu, and slowly learned my ways around, and understanding how everything works, but most people don’t have to now, it’s so simple to get started.
Linux can be secured on much deeper levels than windows, by default yes it lacks antivirus but its also much less necessary given the software distribution model of Linux vs windows. But ClamAV is a decent antivirus that I use on my Linux server. Never felt the need for one on my workstation/laptop
Oooh, I get to say an "Umm... Actually" fact. File names are not case sensitive in Linux nor are they case insensitive in Windows.
It's entirely possible to have a case insensitive filesystem on Linux (I think ext4 supports a mount option for it now). Likewise, there's a bit you can set on folders in Windows that makes its contents case sensitive. So realistically, case sensitivity is a property of the folder, not the OS.
I hate the fact that if you want to change the case on a file in windows, you can't just replace the offending letter. You have to change the name completely, then change it back with the correct casing. Then Windows will finally keep it.
i mean gimp and libre office are both downloadable from winget and windows is typically free or factored in when you buy a pc (which is how most people would get it)
"Free software" doesn't mean you don't pay for it, but that it respects and preserves the user's freedom. The opposite is not "cost software" but unfree software.
Most of the other points in this list are also questionable or inaccurate. In fact, I think the only true one is the first one: open source vs closed source.
I would argue that Linux is not more secure than Windows. Linux is way more private and gives you way more control but from a purely security perspective Linux has its own weaknesses and is constantly getting CVEs.
I don't think Linux is inherently insecure. I just think it does have its own security issues which is especially true of LTS. It isn't a golden nugget and it is problematic when people treat it as such.
Yeah, if you have a fucking clue what you're doing which most casual users don't. (That includes me.)
The only significant advantage it has security-wise over Windows is not defaulting to an admin/root account and instead requiring an elevation of privileges.
...but even modern Windows does the same now.
Exploits exist for Linux and other open source products, corporations with Linux servers and GNU utilities get hacked.... I mean fuck just go look at all the CVE's, they don't make them for nothing.
Every bugfix is a CVE. Even if it is maybe not a security problem in first place, but it might be one in the kernel context, so everything is a CVE. Also other CVEs from other applications, open source or not, doesn't have to mean that much. You have to see those database quite critical. Especially if you need very esoteric, almost magical methods to exploit.
When the people of the Linux Kernel started flooding them, because every bug is a security problem, those Database providers were and are very happy. It makes good money, those data is seller from other providers to companies. And now you really have to use their service, because the kernel have soooooooo many security problems! It is not like developers or security teams are happy about this shit. But if the senior leaders insist on use those CVEs, you don't have any choice. And it is not that unusual, that it is not needed to address them.
The Linux Kernel can provide and provides more security when you use them. It is the decision of the distribution if they want to enable selinux or apparmor, enable kernel options, which make your system more hardened with memory encryption, page poison or kernel lock down and and and. Since this is only the kernel, the userland can provide more features, which some distributions also enables.
The way you can elevate applications and define special rights for the usage of devices or OS functions, is incomparable to standard Windows. Would only user, group and rwx exist, they wouldn't be any lxc, podman, docker or whatever today. Windows does not the same now. Windows does it different and can't do some things regarding elevation of rights and their restriction by design.
Linux Kernel provides more security techniques than Windows indeed, but they need to be used. To point out CVEs is kind of stupid. The Linux kernel never commited any entries to the CVE database for years, they started since February 2024 doing so, because they gave up on their opposition. They warned, if they do this now, the databases will get flooded with CVEs. Because in the kernel context, every bug counts as a security problem, if you look at it from the right perspective. This is a difference to Windows CVEs.
Of course this is great for those CVEs database providers because they now can sell their stuff happily.
What you need are not CVE entries for the Linux Kernel, but the latest supported Linux Kernel installed.
And srsly: Antivirus is snake oil. Using software with Administrator rights in Windows or even Linux, which parses every file, is fucking dangerous. It is usable on a mailserver, where the antivirus process is containerised or virtualized.
And what is the point with firewalls I read here? The most distros have firewalls enabled. When were they not there? Iptables was always there and I had to configure it, so I could allow or disallow incoming traffic. I almost never had to install it manually.
Edit:
Regarding CVEs, here the what Linux CNA tells:
Note, due to the layer at which the Linux kernel is in a system, almost any bug might be exploitable to compromise the security of the kernel, but the possibility of exploitation is often not evident when the bug is fixed. Because of this, the CVE assignment team is overly cautious and assign CVE numbers to any bugfix that they identify. This explains the seemingly large number of CVEs that are issued by the Linux kernel team.
I’ve been using Linux between 2018-2020 and on and off between 2020-2023 and regained daily status on November last year. It’s been great, but some things like lacking a proper office replacement (Only Office (FOSS), FreeOffice (Free as in beer), and WPS Office (Free as in beer) are all getting closer) are a bit limiting. Some stuff like lacking VRR and HDR were annoying (getting fixed now) and gaming has been improving. Game compatibility sometimes is a bit of a sore spot, but it’s been getting ever easier and honestly, haven’t had issues with NVIDIA drivers under wayland
Administrator is not root. NT AUTHORIRY\System probably comes closest. You rarely need to interact with that account because Window's security system doesn't have the same mix of authentication systems most Linux systems have (users + container APIs + PolKit).
Windows also supports mixed case filesystems just fine. It's not the default, so your programs will probably screw up, but it's just a flag. You can also mount filesystems like ext4 and btrfs on Windows (though booting from them doesn't really work).
Also, Windows runs Libreoffice and GIMP just fine. You don't need to, because you have better sofware available (pirated or paid).
As for security, Windows is MUCH better unless you're a cybersecurity specialist with too much time in their hands. Most major distros don't even come with a firewall enabled by default, let alone a firewall for outgoing traffic. And the best AV I've seen for Linux is Microsoft's enterprise version of Windows defender. In terms of hacking tools, they're mostly written in languages Python, most of them work on either platform.
For development, Linux has a slight edge, but with WSL2 it really doesn't matter much.