Linux is pretty impressive, and its greatest feature is arguably its cost.If you were to dip into your pocket and pull out nothing but fresh air, you'd still have enough to cover the license fees for this powerful system.Windows, on the other hand, well, Microsoft locks many of its capabilities behind a tiered payment structure.
But what supposed features am I talking about? Seven off the top of my head; maybe you can think of more? Linux licenses are mostly free Windows is proprietary and always costs money The first on the list is the most obvious: the license.Linux (and the surrounding ecosystem) is broadly available under one of the copyleft or permissive licenses (GPL, MIT, Apache, etc.).All free of cost, and with few restrictions.
Windows, on the other hand, is entirely proprietary, and even has a tiered license structure.What you pay for determines which features you get, and prices range roughly between $140 and $200 for a standard Windows system.Platform upgrades are free on Linux Windows has hidden hardware costs While the software upgrades between major Windows versions are free, you may not be able to run them on old hardware.
Windows 11 requires TPM 2.0, and not all laptops support that.TPM isn't something you can officially sidestep either, because it's involved in measuring the system boot, among other things.On the other hand, the use of TPM on Linux is entirely optional, although TPM 1.X was never supported by systemd.
Linux doesn't force your hand and insist you must purchase new hardware for upgrades; Windows does.To me, that makes Windows the more expensive option.Extended software support usually costs nothing on Linux Windows offers LTS-like support for a premium Microsoft provides extended support for Windows versions that are quickly going out of fashion.
It calls the program Extended Security Updates (ESU), which freezes feature releases and focuses entirely on security fixes.Microsoft does offer two free pathways: reward points and data.The former requires you to use its other platforms, and for the latter, you pay with data at the expense of your privacy.
I don't see these as free, and if you decline these offers, you must pay $30 for a one-year extension of security patches.Related The "Windows vs.Linux" debate is a waste of time: Here’s a better approach It's not Windows vs.
Linux, it's Windows and Linux.Posts 40 By David Delony It also runs a real long-term support channel (called LTSC) for enterprise customers with specialized hardware, like kiosks and IoT devices, for up to 10 years—different licenses have different durations.It doesn't come cheap, either.
A license upgrade will cost around $275, in addition to the base license fee.On Linux, LTS is generally free.Debian and Ubuntu offer five-year LTS releases at no extra cost.
However, it’s worth noting that they do offer an additional five years (bringing it to 10) if you pay for a premium subscription—which isn’t cheap, but you do get five years for free.Full-disk encryption is entirely free on Linux Windows locks it behind Pro edition and above If your device gets stolen, it's peace of mind to have strong encryption to guard against malicious access to your digital life.On Windows, BitLocker is the weapon of choice, but it's not entirely free.
To get this feature, you need a Pro, Enterprise, or Education edition, which will cost you a few extra bucks.I may be nitpicking, but that's not free.Windows 11 Home ships with limited Device Encryption, but it comes with restrictions.
On Linux, we have LUKS and dm-crypt, which work together to provide robust and secure encryption, and it costs anything between $0 and $0.Sandboxing is $0 on Linux Windows Sandbox requires Pro edition and above Sometimes you just want to run a program you don't trust without risking your entire system.Windows provides a neat little solution called Windows Sandbox: a clean, disposable, and amnesic copy of Windows that isolates any application you wish.
However (you may have guessed already), it's available only on the Pro edition and above, which means coughing up some extra cash for what I see as an essential feature.Again, Linux offers something like this for free, and has done so for many years.Whether it's KVM or kernel namespaces with bwrap, Linux can wrap untrusted programs in one form or another.
In their default state, these sandboxes are not as convenient as Windows Sandbox, but distros like Qubes specialize in a similar workflow (using Xen), which I'd argue is much more powerful and completely free Remote access will always be free on Linux RDP requires a premium Windows license Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) allows one to stream a graphical display of the desktop over the network, and perform tasks remotely.On some level, I can understand why Microsoft chose to make this a premium feature, because how many home users actually need it? Regardless, it requires an edition above Home to serve as a host, which means nobody can connect to a Home machine over RDP.OpenSSH is available for every distribution, and it costs nothing.
You can use it with X11 forwarding or Waypipe to get full graphics support, if the terminal is not your thing.Perhaps I'm being a little unfair on Microsoft, because there are free implementations of VNC out there, available for both platforms.If you don't have RDP, you can set that up instead.
However, RDP is still a premium feature, and so makes it onto the list.Rejecting data collection costs you nothing on Linux It's reserved for enterprise on Windows Close Windows collects an absurd amount of diagnostic data, and on the Home edition you can turn it down, but never entirely off.The setting that stops collection completely is reserved for Enterprise, Education, and Server editions.
On Home or Pro editions, the lowest you can go to is Microsoft's "required" level, which is a little too required for my liking.People typically turn to registry edits to squash it permanently, but Microsoft often disagrees, and frequently resets any changes you made.Linux may politely ask to collect telemetry data, but you can politely tell it where to go, and it will go there, never bothering you again.
You can measure the cost of doing so through the calories you burned by clicking the "no" button.How much does a Tic Tac cost? It’s like comparing apples to oranges, but free speaks my language Comparing these two systems on "freeness" is like comparing Mr.Rogers to Dr.
Evil in terms of wholesomeness.Linux is free—that's its modus operandi.Windows is commercial, and with that comes a number of restrictions that will always peeve certain people.
Any sane corporation will structure its premium offerings in a tiered fashion.However, for me, it's Linux every time.But some will have problems changing their minds.
Read More
