Alternatives to Linux logo

Alternatives to Linux

Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Android SDK, Windows 10, and Windows are the most popular alternatives and competitors to Linux.
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What is Linux and what are its top alternatives?

A clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.
Linux is a tool in the Operating Systems category of a tech stack.

Top Alternatives to Linux

  • Ubuntu
    Ubuntu

    Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’. It also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the world of computers. ...

  • Arch Linux
    Arch Linux

    A lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.

  • Android SDK
    Android SDK

    Android provides a rich application framework that allows you to build innovative apps and games for mobile devices in a Java language environment. ...

  • Windows 10
    Windows 10

    It is the latest iteration of the Microsoft operating systems and has been optimized for home PC performance in a wide variety of applications from serious work to after-hours gaming. ...

  • Windows
    Windows

    A series of personal computer operating systems produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows NT family of operating systems. ...

  • Amazon Linux
    Amazon Linux

    The Amazon Linux AMI is a supported and maintained Linux image provided by Amazon Web Services for use on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). ...

  • FreeBSD
    FreeBSD

    An operating system for a variety of platforms which focuses on features, speed, and stability. It is derived from BSD, the version of UNIX® developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It is developed and maintained by a large community. ...

  • Kali Linux
    Kali Linux

    It is a Debian-based Linux distribution aimed at advanced Penetration Testing and Security Auditing. It contains several hundred tools which are geared towards various information security tasks, such as Penetration Testing, Security research, Computer Forensics and Reverse Engineering. ...

Linux alternatives & related posts

Ubuntu logo

Ubuntu

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The leading OS for PC, tablet, phone and cloud
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PROS OF UBUNTU
  • 230
    Free to use
  • 96
    Easy setup for testing discord bot
  • 57
    Gateway Linux Distro
  • 54
    Simple interface
  • 9
    Don't need driver installation in most cases
  • 6
    Open Source
  • 6
    Many active communities
  • 3
    Software Availability
  • 3
    Easy to custom
  • 2
    Many flavors/distros based on ubuntu
  • 1
    Lightweight container base OS
  • 1
    Great OotB Linux Shell Experience
CONS OF UBUNTU
  • 5
    Demanding system requirements
  • 4
    Adds overhead and unnecessary complexity over Debian
  • 2
    Snapd installed by default
  • 1
    Systemd

related Ubuntu posts

Tim Abbott
Shared insights
on
DebianDebianUbuntuUbuntuFedoraFedora
at

We use Debian and its derivative Ubuntu because the apt ecosystem and toolchain for Debian packages is far superior to the yum-based system used by Fedora and RHEL. This is large part due to a huge amount of investment into tools like debhelper/dh over the years by the Debian community. I haven't dealt with RPM in the last couple years, but every experience I've had with RPM is that the RPM tools are slower, have less useful options, and it's more work to package software for them (and one makes more compromises in doing so).

I think everyone has seen the better experience using Ubuntu in the shift of prevalence from RHEL to Ubuntu in what most new companies are deploying on their servers, and I expect that trend to continue as long as Red Hat is using the RPM system (and I don't really see them as having a path to migrate).

The experience with Ubuntu and Debian stable releases is pretty similar: A solid release every 2 years that's supported for a few years. (While Ubuntu in theory releases every 6 months, their non-LTS releases are effectively betas: They're often unstable, only have 9 months of support, etc. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone not actively participating in Ubuntu the development community). Ubuntu has better integration of non-free drivers, which may be important if you have hardware that requires them. But it's also the case that most bugs I experience when using Ubuntu are Ubuntu-specific issues, especially on servers (in part because Ubuntu has a bunch of "cloud management" stuff pre-installed that is definitely a regression if you're not using Canonical's cloud management products).

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John Calandra
Data Manager at The Garrett Group · | 8 upvotes · 354.3K views

There is a question coming... I am using Oracle VirtualBox to spawn 3 Ubuntu Linux virtual machines (VM). VM1 is being used as a data lake - just a place to store flat files. VM2 hosts Apache NiFi. VM3 hosts PostgreSQL. I have built a NiFi pipeline that reads flat files on VM1 and then pipes the data over to and inserts it into the Postgresql database. I left this setup alone for a while, and then something hiccupped on VM3, and I had to rebuild it. Now I cannot make a remote connection to Postgresql on VM3. I was using pgAdmin3 on VM3, but it kept throwing errors - I found out it went end-of-life in 2018 and uninstalled it. pgAdmin4 is out, but for some reason, I cannot get the APT utility to find/install it. I am trying to figure out the pgAdmin4 install problem and looking for a good alternative for pgAdmin4 that I can use to diagnose the remote database connection problem. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

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Arch Linux logo

Arch Linux

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A lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.
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PROS OF ARCH LINUX
  • 17
    Large Community
  • 15
    Package Manager
  • 13
    Customizable
  • 12
    Rolling Release
  • 11
    Arch User Repository
  • 11
    Bleeding Edge
  • 10
    Extensive Documentation
  • 8
    Arch Build System
  • 7
    X86_64 architecture supported
  • 4
    Can fix bugs yourself if you know how to
CONS OF ARCH LINUX
  • 4
    Systemd only
  • 3
    Only X86_64 architecture is offically supported
  • 1
    No Guided Installation
  • 1
    System maintenance
  • 1
    Unstable
  • 1
    Comparatively fewer offically supported packages

related Arch Linux posts

Shared insights
on
UbuntuUbuntuLinuxLinuxArch LinuxArch Linux

I once used Ubuntu as my exclusive Linux distro, but then I decided to switch my primary operating system to Arch Linux.

While more difficult to install, Arch Linux offered more flexibility during the installation process which allowed me to customize my system to fit me perfectly. With Ubuntu, instead of installing everything i did want, I had to remove everything that I didn't need.

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Shared insights
on
Kali LinuxKali LinuxArch LinuxArch LinuxLinuxLinux

I do find Linux-based systems to be cool! However, I am confused when it comes to which Linux operating system to use. I cannot make my mind between Arch Linux and Kali Linux. Guys, give me some advice if you would be so kind.

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Android SDK logo

Android SDK

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An SDK that provides you the API libraries and developer tools necessary to build, test, and debug apps...
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PROS OF ANDROID SDK
  • 289
    Android development
  • 155
    Necessary for android
  • 128
    Android studio
  • 86
    Mobile framework
  • 82
    Backed by google
  • 27
    Platform-tools
  • 21
    Eclipse + adt plugin
  • 5
    Powerful, simple, one stop environment
  • 3
    Free
  • 3
    Больно
CONS OF ANDROID SDK
    Be the first to leave a con

    related Android SDK posts

    Jesus Dario Rivera Rubio
    Telecomm Engineering at Netbeast · | 10 upvotes · 1M views

    We are using React Native in #SmartHome to share the business logic between Android and iOS team and approach users with a unique brand experience. The drawback is that we require lots of native Android SDK and Objective-C modules, so a good part of the invested time is there. The gain for a app that relies less on native communication, sensors and OS tools should be even higher.

    Also it helps us set different testing stages: we use Travis CI for the javascript (business logic), Bitrise to run build tests and @Detox for #end2end automated user tests.

    We use a microservices structure on top of Zeit's @now that read from firebase. We use JWT auth to authenticate requests among services and from users, following GitHub philosophy of using the same infrastructure than its API consumers. Firebase is used mainly as a key-value store between services and as a backup database for users. We also use its authentication mechanisms.

    You can be super locked-in if you also rely on it's analytics, but we use Amplitude for that, which offers us great insights. Intercom for communications with end-user and Mailjet for marketing.

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    Sezgi Ulucam
    Developer Advocate at Hasura · | 7 upvotes · 915.5K views

    I've recently switched to using Expo for initializing and developing my React Native apps. Compared to React Native CLI, it's so much easier to get set up and going. Setting up and maintaining Android Studio, Android SDK, and virtual devices used to be such a headache. Thanks to Expo, I can now test my apps directly on my Android phone, just by installing the Expo app. I still use Xcode Simulator for iOS testing, since I don't have an iPhone, but that's easy anyway. The big win for me with Expo is ease of Android testing.

    The Expo SDK also provides convenient features like Facebook login, MapView, push notifications, and many others. https://docs.expo.io/versions/v31.0.0/sdk/

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    Windows 10 logo

    Windows 10

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    The most secure Windows ever built
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    PROS OF WINDOWS 10
    • 3
      On 4gb other applications less likely to run smoothly
    • 3
      Slow
    • 2
      Best for Indonesian PC Users
    • 2
      The best developer tools for all devices
    • 1
      Editors choice. But not suitable on 4gb ram. Alth
    • 1
      Complies with JIS Standard
    • 1
      Great is if you have 8b ram and a 128gb ssd minimum
    CONS OF WINDOWS 10
    • 3
      Lags really much on low end devices
    • 3
      Slow, slow and slow
    • 2
      Worst OS to run on 2GB of RAM
    • 1
      Acts posh
    • 1
      Can't fix bugs yourself

    related Windows 10 posts

    Justin Dorfman
    Open Source Program Manager at Reblaze · | 3 upvotes · 38.8K views

    I have been using macOS for 12 years. I can't imagine switching to another operating system since I have all of my hotkeys memorized. Windows 10 has made some drastic improvements like adding GNU Bash/Linux to win developers over from unix-like systems, I just don't feel it is there yet. Maybe I'll give it a shot next time I need a new laptop. 🤷‍♂️

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    Windows logo

    Windows

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    A group of several graphical operating system families, all of which are developed by Microsoft
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    PROS OF WINDOWS
    • 3
      Lovely
    CONS OF WINDOWS
    • 2
      Proprietary
    • 1
      Not free to use

    related Windows posts

    Shared insights
    on
    UnityUnityElectronElectronmacOSmacOSWindowsWindows

    We want to create a 3D web and desktop(Windows and macOS) application with a lot of functionalities. This is a 3D furniture customization application in which we give options to add, delete, scale, move, rotate objects. Something like a floor planner. We are also going to add AR and VR.

    I am thinking about using Electron or Unity. Please recommend what should I choose for this purpose. Please consider that we have to develop for web and desktop (windows and mac) all platforms.

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    William Miller

    We are developing an AWS IoT app for large boats. The IoT devices have sensors all over the boat for engine oil pressure, position, water depth, fuel level, crew location, etc. When the boat has internet, we interact with AWS cloud using lambda and Amazon DynamoDB. When the boat is offshore, the captain and crew still need normal and emergency alerts and real-time sensor information. The crew might have an Android or IoS phone or a Windows or macOS PC to receive alerts and interact with sensors. We may use the AWS GreenGrasss edge computing solution and either MQTT or HTML for that function.

    Question: We want to develop a cross-platform client to run on Windows, Mac, Android, IOS, and possibly Linux. We are primarily Python programmers, so PyQt or Kivy are options for us, but we have heard good things about React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, and others. We think an AWS Greengrass core on an RPI4 could communicate to the client with MQTT or a local webserver with a client web interface.

    Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

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    Amazon Linux logo

    Amazon Linux

    149
    147
    0
    The Amazon Linux AMI is a supported and maintained Linux image provided by Amazon Web Services for use...
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    PROS OF AMAZON LINUX
      Be the first to leave a pro
      CONS OF AMAZON LINUX
        Be the first to leave a con

        related Amazon Linux posts

        FreeBSD logo

        FreeBSD

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        190
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        An operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms
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        PROS OF FREEBSD
        • 8
          Excellent as Server
        • 6
          Very Stable
        • 4
          Helpful community
        • 2
          Free to use
        • 2
          Extremely simple updates and compiles of kernel and use
        • 2
          Good for Cloud - Nextcloud
        • 2
          Ports and packages system is mature and well-supported
        • 1
          Easy to install
        • 1
          Supported by major cloud platforms
        CONS OF FREEBSD
        • 1
          Slower to adopt non-server hardware than Linux
        • 1
          Poor support for laptops, especially wireless cards

        related FreeBSD posts

        Kali Linux logo

        Kali Linux

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        371
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        Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking Linux Distribution
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        PROS OF KALI LINUX
        • 8
          Penetration testing tools are pre-installed
        • 8
          Has many penetration testing tools
        • 5
          Runs on both x86 and ARM platforms
        • 3
          Its just debian so it has better support
        • 1
          There's no restrictions
        CONS OF KALI LINUX
        • 3
          Wireless driver issues on some systems
        • 3
          Packages are too large in size as compare to alpine
        • 3
          Outdated versions of common packages
        • 2
          Root GUI setup is a potential security hole

        related Kali Linux posts

        Shared insights
        on
        Kali LinuxKali LinuxArch LinuxArch LinuxLinuxLinux

        I do find Linux-based systems to be cool! However, I am confused when it comes to which Linux operating system to use. I cannot make my mind between Arch Linux and Kali Linux. Guys, give me some advice if you would be so kind.

        See more