Open and Closed Source Systems

Ubuntu vs Windows 7

I have been a Windows user dating back to Windows 95 both personally and professionally. I have never been an Apple fan so wouldn’t even consider touching Mac OS x to do a comparison. I have heard Ubuntu has a user friendly layout, similarities to Windows, and easy to customize file system so it only made sense to experiment with Ubuntu.

First glance, the main screen is certainly much more appealing. The darker colors along with the fading from dark to light is more soothing to the eyes than that of the light blue Windows logo found on Windows OS. The layout with the connection, Bluetooth, mail, sound, calendar, and settings buttons located in the top right corner, although similar to Windows 7, is clearer and more defined than that of the cluster Window 7 has in the bottom right corner. I especially like the settings button, more of a mobile look and feel.

Functionality of Ubuntu is simpler and yet well designed than that of Windows 7. The, I guess what would be called the start bar, is located on the left side vertically with large easy to recognize buttons. The dash home button provide quick access to all that a standard user would want quick access to. Such as, the media player, disk burner, movie player, music, and sound recorder. The Home button or what looks like a file cabinet represent what windows explorer does for Windows 7. However, Ubuntu’s file manager, Home button, is a lot cleaner design and functionality wise than that of windows explorer. The layout alone with the places listed on the left and the larger folders in the middle is more eye appealing than that of all the small cramped folders off the to the left as in windows explorer.

Productivity seems to be easily accessed as well. Ubuntu’s version of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are large easily recognizable buttons on the start bar, no more have to start, all programs, Microsoft Office, then either select which program you want or right click it and pin it to the...