Features Linux Has...But Windows Doesn't!

So Linux and Windows differ in a lot of ways. There are a lot of features that we have in Linux that are just not there in Windows. I think we all recognize this. For me, I've been using Linux as my primary desktop operating system for about 18 years or so. And I can say that there are some things that exist in Linux that are not found in Windows. And I could just never go back to Windows because of some of the killer features that Linux has that are just missing in Windows. I came across this article today, this article over at xdadevelopers.com. Linux has quietly become more forward-thinking than Windows and these six features prove it. So what I wanted to do, I actually wanted to check out this article. I don't read a lot of Linux-y and tech journalism, but I'm curious what the six features they're gonna mention in this article because I can tell you personally, I could probably list at least a dozen off the top of my head features that Linux has that Windows doesn't, but they're probably trying to keep the article kind of minimal, right? Typically these kinds of articles, you stick with like a top five to top seven kind of list. So I'm curious, what are their top six features that Linux has that Windows does not have? First up, Linux lets you change the entire desktop experience. Well, that is certainly true. I think this is probably one I would have mentioned as well. The customization as far as the fact that you can easily switch between desktop environments within Linux and of course on Windows, you have the Windows desktop environment that gets shipped with Windows and that's basically where you're expected to live, right? Windows, it says, still treats customization like a controlled sandbox and that is certainly true. You can customize Windows more than Mac OS, but you really can customize Linux. Linux is designed for you to tweak. Linux is not really designed, even though there's a lot of Linux distros that do ship a very well polished desktop experience out of the box, it's kind of expected that most users are probably going to massively tweak their system. I certainly do. Matter of fact, I tweak mine to the point where it's very hard for me to use a Linux distribution that is not minimal out of the box because I prefer just building things from the ground up rather than starting with something and tearing it down to what I want. So these days, that's why people often ask me, why do I run Arch Linux and Arch-based distros? It's because in a lot of ways, it's easier for me to start from the more minimal approach if I'm going to customize the hell out of a distribution than starting with something that's already big, bloated, already ships a ton of default programs and everything and then I have to strip all that away. That's actually more difficult in my opinion. Getting back to the article, next on his list of features Linux has that Windows doesn't, Linux package managers still feel generations ahead. Well, yes. So we've had centralized repositories of software, we've had package managers, if you will, in Linux for decades now. And Windows now has package managers as well, but yeah, I'm sure they're probably nowhere near what we have available in Linux. So this is another one. I think it's kind of a no-brainer, although when he titles the article, six features Linux has that Windows doesn't, I mean, technically speaking, Windows does have a package manager now. So that's kind of misleading. He's right. Package manager is not as good as what we have in Linux. Yeah, I get that. And then next up, Linux live USB sessions feel futuristic in 2026. So yeah, I love the fact in Linux that we can boot the entire operating system off a USB stick. It makes testing Linux distributions very easy. Now, this is another one that's a little misleading because you actually can boot Windows off a USB stick. No matter of fact, looking at the article here, he does mention there is an equivalent to this on Windows 11 called Windows PE. I've never used that, but I think it's a stripped down version of Windows, maybe a command line version of Windows, but it's something much more minimal. It's not the real like full featured Windows 11 and you're booting off a USB stick. So he's kind of half right on that one. Next up, the next feature, Linux snapshot rollback systems are absurdly powerful. So this is actually something that probably would have been near the top of my list if I was making one of these lists. It's the fact that we have really advanced file systems, such as ButterFS and we have rollback systems, these snapshot systems as well. These days, we also have immutable Linux distributions that allow you to roll back if things break. If you take an update, things aren't quite right. After the update, you just roll back to the previous state of the machine. And he may actually mention that in this article as well. If I scroll down to the next one, the next feature is proper headless operation is still a Linux superpower. So headless operation, he's talking about basically running Linux on a server, not hooking up things like keyboard monitor and things to it. He's actually showing what looks like possibly a NAS here. And yeah, he's mentioning things like NAS systems, home servers, Raspberry Pi projects, Docker environment, self-hosting, enterprise infrastructure, yada, yada, yada. We all know Linux is kind of king on the server. So yeah, that makes sense that that would be, that's probably going to be on most everybody's list if they were making this kind of list of features that Linux has that, you know, Windows can kind of do some of this, but it's not nearly as good as Linux. And then next, immutable Linux distros. So he did mention that. We've already kind of discussed that with snapshots and being able to roll back things. And that was his six features. I will mention a couple of things. Like if I was making a list, you know, I would mention things like extreme hardware flexibility. The fact that the Linux kernel, which is what the operating system is built around, that Linux can really be tailored in such a way to run effectively on any kind of hardware, even really old hardware, 15-year-old computers, right? I've got machines that are that old that run Linux. Many of you guys have machines that old or even older that run Linux. And you just can't do that with Windows because Windows has the one Windows, right? Where Linux, we have a lot of Linux distributions that are tailored to specific needs. Some tailored to really high-end equipment, some to really low-end equipment. But Windows has the one Windows and it has really high minimum system requirements and you can't really get around that. I think another big feature that Linux has that Windows doesn't, and I think this is a big one, especially for some of the more recent versions of Windows, is the fact that Linux doesn't have forced updates. Linux does not force you to update your system ever, right? You can actually install Linux. Many people do this on servers, install Linux on a server, like a Debian stable or an Ubuntu LTS server, and then they just never update it. And it runs for two years, five years, 10 years or more in some cases, never taking an update. Now, I'm not saying that's a good idea or recommending people do that, but many people do that. On Windows, sometimes Windows is going to force you to take an update. You can decline to take the update. I think it allows you to bypass that update for a few days, but at some point, it's going to force you to take that update. And this is really something that's rather new with Windows 10, Windows 11, I believe, is when they started really forcing these security updates, which, just because it's a security update doesn't mean you need to force users. Like, we have security updates on Linux, but we still give users the freedom to take that security update or not. But on Windows 10, Windows 11, you're basically, you have no choice. They allow you, I think, to do what they call like a pause period, where if you want to pause the update, you can hold off for about 30 days or 35 days or something, but at some point, it's going to force you to take that update. And of course, the system is not yours. If you don't have the freedom to take an update or not take an update, if you don't have total control of your system, then you're not really the owner of that system. You're not the user. You're actually, as Richard Stallman would say, you're the used, and that is the deal with proprietary software versus free and open source software like a Linux system. And heck, since I said I could probably name a dozen of these off the top of my head, I've already added two in addition to the six in the article. Another one that pops into my head immediately is in Linux, we don't have vendor lock-in. There's no vendor lock-in with Linux. You can sign up to whatever services and account, but you're free to do that, where on Windows, you're kind of forced to do things like have Microsoft accounts, view Microsoft ads, accept Microsoft telemetry that's built in. You just kind of agree to it when you accept the end user license agreement. We don't have any of that in Linux. And finally, one other feature I would mention is the free as in cost feature of Linux. There's zero licensing costs with Linux, and you can install it on one computer. You can install it on a thousand computers, right, without paying for any activation keys, without paying for any licenses, without doing any kind of subscriptions. Also, there's no anti-piracy checks that are constantly being run on your system. And then you get nagging warnings. Hey, you haven't paid for this, or your subscription has lagged, yada, yada, yada. You don't get any of that in Linux. And I mean, that's about 10 reasons right there from the article plus a few that I added why for me as a long time now Linux desktop user, I could never go back to Windows. I wouldn't go back to Windows. I would quit using computers before I ran Windows as an operating system. And no, I'm not even joking. Now, before I go, I need to thank a few special people. I need to thank the producers of this episode, Matt, Steve, George, Darloff, Lee, Mark, Methos, Urion, Peace Archivador, Realitites for Less, Roland, Wargentuin, Ubuntu, and Willie. These guys, they're my highest tiered patrons over on Patreon. Without these guys, I couldn't do what I do. They're the ones that make this show happen. And it's not just them, it's also each and every one of these fine ladies and gentlemen. All these names you're seeing on the screen right now, these are all my supporters over on Patreon because I don't have any corporate sponsors. I'm sponsored by you guys, the community. If you like my work and wanna see more videos about Linux and free and open source software, subscribe to DistroTube over on Patreon. Peace, guys.