When you start to do your research, you will soon find that Microsoft has an interesting history of court cases, buyouts, and many other business tactics. At first you might think, "Yeah right, why would Microsoft want to waste its resources on these things, when it has more important things to do like write software?". Well the truth is Microsoft has purposely leaped into legal battles in order to increase its market stronghold and increase market share, and eventually creating the perfect monopoly. It has purposely purchased competiting companies before they grow big enough to fight directly against Microsoft. The more I looked into Microsoft's history, the more I realized that Microsoft has tried every trick in the book to avoid competition up front. From legal battles to company buyouts, to software patents, Microsoft has repeatedly sought to beat down competition before it creeps up on it. Now... finally Microsoft has one competitor that it won't be able to push down... and that is open source software. Open source software is exactly 180 degrees from proprietary software like Microsoft Windows and pretty much all Microsoft products. And, Microsoft really doesn't have any leverage to do much about it because it is the consumer that will bring the negative effect on Microsoft, by using open source software instead of Microsoft software. Competition is good, and in recent years Microsoft has been scrambling to find ways to try and beat down open source software, especially the GNU/Linux operating system, because it is slowly eating away at Microsoft's global market share, and causing Microsoft to have to compete the good old fashioned way.
| Topic | Linux | Windows |
| Price | The majority of Linux variants are available for free or at a much lower price than Microsoft Windows. | Microsoft Windows can run between $50.00 - $150.00 US dollars per each license copy. |
| Ease | Although the majority Linux variants have improved dramatically in ease of use, Windows is still much easier to use for new computer users. | Microsoft has made several advancements and changes that have made it a much easier to use operating system, and although arguably it may not be the easiest operating system, it is still Easier than Linux. |
| Reliability | The majority of Linux variants and versions are notoriously reliable and can often run for months and years without needing to be rebooted. | Although Microsoft Windows has made great improvements in reliability over the last few versions of Windows, it still cannot match the reliability of Linux. |
| Software | Linux has a large variety of available software programs, utilities, and games. However, Windows has a much larger selection of available software. | Because of the large amount of Microsoft Windows users, there is a much larger selection of available software programs, utilities, and games for Windows. |
| Software Cost | Many of the available software programs, utilities, and games available on Linux are freeware or open source. Even such complex programs such as Gimp, OpenOffice, StarOffice, and wine are available for free or at a low cost. | Although Windows does have software programs, utilities, and games for free, the majority of the programs will cost anywhere between $20.00 - $200.00+ US dollars per copy. |
| Hardware | Linux companies and hardware manufacturers have made great advancements in hardware support for Linux and today Linux will support most hardware devices. However, many companies still do not offer drivers or support for their hardware in Linux. | Because of the amount of Microsoft Windows users and the broader driver support, Windows has a much larger support for hardware devices and a good majority of hardware manufacturers will support their products in Microsoft Windows. |
| Security | Linux is and has always been a very secure operating system. Although it still can be attacked when compared to Windows, it much more secure. | Although Microsoft has made great improvements over the years with security on their operating system, their operating system continues to be the most vulnerable to viruses and other attacks. |
| Support | Although it may be more difficult to find users familiar with all Linux variants, there are vast amounts of available online documentation and help, available books, and support available for Linux. | Microsoft Windows includes its own help section, has vast amount of available online documentation and help, as well as books on each of the versions of Windows. |