Windows 10 vs Ubuntu 18.04 Recommendation Report

Intro:

 While many individuals know about the operating system Windows 10, not many know about Ubuntu. On this paper, I will be comparing Windows 10 to Ubuntu 18.04 to see which is better for general consumers. When talking about general consumers, I am mainly focusing on consumers that only use their computers for web browsing, office application, and playing video games. I will be comparing pros and cons for both Windows 10 and Ubuntu 18.04.

Pros and Cons of Windows 10:

 The 3 main reasons I found Windows 10 more attractive than Ubuntu is that Windows 10 has Office 365, is supported by most companies, and has Cortana.

 I believe that having Office 365 is a main selling point for using Windows 10 over Ubuntu because Office 365 does not officially support Ubuntu. In the Microsoft website that shows the list of operating systems Office 365 does support, Ubuntu is not listed. Office 365 not being supported by Ubuntu is significant because most individuals that use Word, Excel, or Powerpoint use Microsoft Office. While Ubuntu does have LibreOffice, LibreOffice also works in Windows. Windows being able to use both Office 365 and LibreOffice gives Windows an edge over Ubuntu.

 The reason why Windows 10 or Windows in general is supported by most companies is that it holds most of the market share on operating system compared to other operating systems. At this time of the report, Windows held 88.05% of the market share while Linux only held 2.04%. The rest of the market share is held by Mac OS at 9.4%, Chrome OS at 0.31%, and Unknown or Berkeley Software Design at 0.3%. Since Windows holds most of the market share, this shows that most personal computers use Windows as their main operating system. Because of its popularity, other companies want to support it. An example of companies supporting Windows 10 is video games. Video game companies generally design their video game to run on Windows.

 I also find Cortana a compelling reason to get Windows 10 over Ubuntu. Cortana can be used for productivity, such as reminders, sending emails, showing to do lists; utilities such as searching documents, creating and deleting alarms, and finding facts. Because of these reasons, I find Cortana to be a neat digital assistant. Unlike Windows 10 however, Ubuntu does not have any digital assistant.

 While there are numerous things Microsoft did right with Windows 10, Windows 10 is not perfect. The 3 main negative reasons why individuals should not use Windows 10 is that it forces users to automatically update their system, collects user data and reports it to Microsoft, and is less secure compared to Ubuntu 18.04.

 I believe that forcing the user to update their operating system is a negative point for Windows 10. There are times the update has negative effects on the computer and it becomes worse when the user did not want the update to begin with. An example of an update that had negative effects on the users is the Windows 10 update, version 1809. According to Jack Alexander, a reporter of Fstoppers, the automatic update has removed documents such as photos, videos, music, and other documents (Alexander).

 Microsoft collects data from users in order to improve their software and customize the experience (Publishing). They are able to get data from users of Windows 10 and send data to Microsoft regarding back usage statistics and more. Even when turned off, according to Publishing, Windows 10 still connects to Microsoft. While Microsoft does this in order to make a better product, not everyone wants companies to be collecting data from them. This is an issue because there are numerous number people who prefer to keep their data private.

 The reason why Windows 10 is not as secure as Ubuntu 18.04 is because hackers have dedicated their time to find holes in Windows 10. There is already published data on how to hack passwords of Windows 10 in public, making it easy for any to use. Passwords are saved into the SAM file but Windows 10 limits the permission on who can access this. Hackers are able to get the password by tricking the system that they are System account and copies the SAM file to another disk where they can extract it. If this data is available online, anyone with enough dedication and time would be able to hack the passwords of Windows 10, allowing them access to personal data of the user.

Pros and Cons for Ubuntu 18.04:

 The 3 main reasons I found Ubuntu more attractive than Windows 10 is that it is free, updates are optional, and security.

 In order to get Ubuntu, an individual only needs to go to their website and download the version the individual wants for free. Unlike Ubuntu, however the home version of Windows 10 costs $98.99 on Amazon at this time of report. I found this a positive point for Ubuntu because not everyone wants to pay $100 for an operating system that the user will only use to browse websites or watch videos.

 Updates are optional is one of the reasons individuals are choosing to move into Ubuntu over Windows. Ubuntu still makes often updates for security and bug fixes, but since it is optional, the user can decide to wait to update or not. A reason as to why a user would choose to not update the operating system right away is because the update does not create new bugs. This is critical for some users who have data they want to keep protected and the update might accidentally erase the data or if past programs would still be stable on the updated programs.

 In terms of security, it is safe to assume the Ubuntu is more secure than Windows. The reason being is that there is little to no viruses or malware programs being developed for Ubuntu while hackers are more likely to target Windows (Publishing). Another reason why Ubuntu is more secure than Windows is that the user has root privileges while in Windows the user does not. This helps security because it helps find malware or viruses.

 While there are attractive reasons to switch to Ubuntu 18.04, using it also has flaws like Windows 10. The 3 main negative reasons why individuals should not use Ubuntu is the usability, software support, and Ubuntu support.

 While Ubuntu is getting better to be more user friendly, it still has some usability errors. In order to install software in Ubuntu, the user is required to go onto Terminal to type commands for the software to start to install in Ubuntu. While it is easy to just type commands, most users find it annoying to type commands such as “sudo apt install (app name)” to install software programs. It is also different to uninstall programs in Ubuntu. To uninstall, the user still needs to go into the Terminal, type “dpkg –list” to find the list of programs, find the actual program such as “example.exe”, then type “sudo apt-get –purge remove (program name)”. This is a problem because while this seems easy to programmers, general consumers find these commands a hassle to use.

 Most software programs in Ubuntu 18.04 are free and the developers created them for their love of the system. There is a probability that the developers just decide that it is not worth it to keep developing software for free and move on from Ubuntu 18.04. Another point that makes this worse is that the software that is developed is not as polished as the software developed for Windows. An example of this is Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office is only supported in Windows and Mac and cannot be used in Ubuntu, so LibreOffice was created so everyone can use it. However, LibreOffice is not as well polished as Microsoft Office. Another example are video games. Most video games on Steam do not support Linux, and in order to play those games, Linux users use a program called Wine. Wine is a compatibility layer that allows Ubuntu to run windows applications. Wine also lets other windows applications to run on Ubuntu. While this does solve the software support problems, if Ubuntu requires compatibility application to run windows application, a question arises. Why should I use Ubuntu to run Windows programs when I can just use Windows?

 The main problem of Ubuntu 18.04 is that it takes a long time to get support. Some users have experienced problems with Ubuntu, but since there are not many users, it might take months to be able to get solutions or even tips on solving the problem in Ubuntu. I believe this is the main problem of Ubuntu because if users are not getting the help they require to fix problems, they will move to different operating systems. Since Windows has a huge user base, getting help for any problem related to the operating system takes considerably less time compared to Ubuntu.

Conclusion:

 After researching the benefits of using Windows 10 and Ubuntu 18.04 and researching the negative aspects of using either of them, I would recommend Windows 10 for the general consumer. In terms of web browsing, Ubuntu 18.04 is more secure to use than Windows 10 because hackers are mainly targeting Windows 10 over Ubuntu 18.04. In terms of office applications, however Windows 10 has the upper hand because most companies and individuals use Microsoft Office, which is not supported by Ubuntu 18.04. Ubuntu 18.04 does have LibreOffice but LibreOffice can also be used by Windows 10 users. Since Windows 10 users have the option to choose which office application they want while Ubuntu 18.04 users does not, Windows has the upper hand. In terms of video games, Windows also had the upper hand because most games are made to run on Windows while Ubuntu requires Wine in order to run windows programs.

 While both operating systems have benefits such as Windows 10 having Cortana and Ubuntu being free and not forcing updates, they both also have their downsides. Windows 10 forces updates on the users and collects data. Ubuntu 18.04 does not have much support from 3^rd parties or Ubuntu itself. I decided to recommend Windows 10 over Ubuntu 18.04 because the benefits of Windows 10 outweigh the negative aspects and the benefits of Ubuntu 18.04.

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