🚀 go-pugleaf

> Figuring out whether they are important or not, and why, is part of the
> lesson.  Learning about finding out is the aim of the lesson.

The purpose of Linux is, as I know, the real, stable and free operating
system. Micros**t's things are neither of that.

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Windows**t 98 and below are put on top of DOS. Althout Win 9x are more
like OS's they are still affected by DOS they are on top of. They don't
have kernel, only loads of rubbish. (In fact, there is something called
kernel in Win 9x but that's something else - you see messages like "This
program has crashed bla bla bla" about the kernel but something still
"works".)

NT and similar stuff (2000) are more like OS's but they still don't
separate much between OS and GUI. They are all mixtures that lack both
(OS and GUI) features.

Linux has a stable kernel (even the odd versions are sometimes more
stable than Micros**t things). The kernel includes process handling,
device accessing, protection, ... Whatever crashes on top of that, the
kernel will be unaffected and neither will other processes.

You get constant update of kernel and system tools for free. With
Micros**t you can sometimes buy the newer edition with a few
improvements and new bugs. Or sometimes you get (buy?) an update with
corrections, and then correction for corrections after a while.
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Linux aims to be as compatible as possible. Micros**t aims to be as
incompatible as possible.

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Linux was the first one to introduce long filenames on CDROMs as Rock
Ridge extension to ISOsomething. Micros*t introduced Joliet later. Linux
soon included Joliet, too, and has no problem with it. But Micros**t
doesn't support RockRidge, of course. The Linux Developer's Resource is
therefore in Joliet format, not Rock Ridge, so that the Windows**t users
would go to Linux easily.

Linux developers are trying to add the support for various filesystems
(even very exotic ones), Micros**t sticks with its own rubbish. Even
worse - Win 9x uses vfat but not ntfs, NT uses ntfs but not vfat so the
only common filesystem is dos fat which is very limited in naming files.
Another example (not with OS) is MS Word and other tools - the document
versions are incompatible so the newer version of the tool also needs
converters from all older versions - Micros**t is probably scared that
someone would find out how to write the files so they change the format
every now and then to remain incompatible.
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Linux aims to be customizable. Micros**t does partly. But never as much.

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You can change all startup scripts and customize them, you can choose
the window manager in X windows and even the fvwm is more customizable
than Windows**t. You can even change the programs like getty, login, or,
if you are brave, init, and make something totally different. With
sources and documentaion it's even easier to do all that.
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However, since it's very customizable and something totally different
can be made, something totally different has been made. That's various
distributions.

Tom