Fri 30 Nov 2012
10 reasons to choose Ubuntu 12.10 over Windows 8
Posted by Prakash under Linux
[4] Comments
From PC World.
Ubuntu is a widely popular open-source Linux distribution with eight years of maturity under its belt, and more than 20 million users. Of the roughly 5 percent of desktop OSs accounted for by Linux, at least one survey suggests that about half are Ubuntu. (Windows, meanwhile, accounts for about 84 percent.)
The timing of this latest Ubuntu release couldn’t be better for Windows users faced with the paradigm-busting Windows 8 and the big decision of whether to take the plunge.
Initial uptake of Windows 8 has been unenthusiastic, according to reports, and a full 80 percent of businesses will never adopt it, Gartner predicts. As a result, Microsoft’s big gamble may be desktop Linux’s big opportunity.
So, now that Canonical has thrown down the gauntlet, let’s take a closer look at Ubuntu 12.10 to see how it compares with Windows 8 from a business user’s perspective.
Windows 8 Pro (x86) | Ubuntu 12.10 | |
---|---|---|
License fee | $39 to $69 upgrade | Free |
CPU architectures supported | x86, x86-64 | x86, x86-64, ARM, PPC |
Minimum RAM | 1GB, 2GB | 512MB |
Minimum hard-disk space | 20GB | 5GB |
Concurrent multiuser support | No | Yes |
Workspaces | One | Two or more |
Virtualization | Hyper-V | KVM |
License | Not applicable | GPL Open Source: Main, Non-GPL: Restricted |
Productivity software included | None | LibreOffice |
Graphics tools included | No | Yes |