what is the difference between a linix...

[NiNjAassasin545]

Someone please tell me what the difference is between a linix based OS and a normal os like windows or mac. what category is windows and mac in?

[Jimbot]

The big difference is Linux is open source meaning anyone can view and develop the source code for free.

There are lots of sites detailing the differences - here are two:

http://www.zdnet.com/news/ten-key-differences-between-linux-and-windows/219655

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Windows_and_Linux

By the way, Linux is a 'normal' OS! :)

[sohguanh]

I I'm not mistaken, the Android OS or even China Alibaba own mobile OS Aliyun maybe using Linux as the base to build their "new" OS. Since Linux has gone through so many iterations, most major problems like stability,scalability etc should be ironed out, then take this OS and build your own proprietary extensions on it in a much short time-frame to market delivery.

For this, we really should thank Linus Torvalds for creating such a wonderful OS called Linux and his belief in Open Source which ultimately spur the OS to much greater heights than those commercial proprietary ones :P