Windows Vs. Linux Mint Vs. Windows 8

      Welcome to the Windows 7, vs Windows 8 vs Linux Mint compare and contrast. We will explain which one you will want to buy and why.

Ease of Use

     Windows 8 has a super fast boot time and is not even compared to Windows 7. Its also very easy to use once you get used to it. Windows 8's new Type and Search function is very innovative. But if you're a new user it will be hard to get used to. Basically once you start typing on your keyboard an automatic search bar pops up and speeds up your time even more, it can find everything from programs to apps and even your user settings. Linux mint has a very easy installation and is good for newbies while also being convenient for computer veterans.Linux mint is hard to use in certain situations such as getting to computer files and more. If you have experience with other OS's then Linux mint may be good for you but if your new to them then I would suggest using Windows 8 or 7. Windows 7 also has great ease of use. Windows 7 is very user friendly. For example, "Windows 7 also has an Ease of Access center the Ease of Access Center is a central location that you can use to set up the accessibility settings and programs available in Windows. In the Ease of Access Center, you'll find quick access for setting up the accessibility settings and programs included in Windows. The Ease of Access center can make your experience with windows more enjoyable if you like having some settings customized to your preference.''[1]

Compatibility

     Windows 7 and 8 are compatible with many important and useful programs for example Linux Mint can't open .exe files unless you have a program called "WINE." You also can't install Skype. If you want the most compatible OS i would use Windows 7 or 8, because it is easier to download,install, and open files. I would only suggest Linux Mint because out of all the OS's it is the only one that is free.

Price

    Price is a very important thing in today's economy so i'm sure if you were going to choose an OS you would consider price. Linux Mint is free and is an open source software, this means the software is free to install. ''It is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, copy, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code.''[2] This has made Linux Mint easy to obtain and has made it very recognizable with great benefits. Windows 7 has many different packages the most common is Home Premium which usually comes preloaded on most computers it is also the cheapest other than Starter. Windows 7 professional which cost $200 allows you to connect to a domain as well as ultimate which can cost as much as $300. Windows 8 is not out yet so it does not a an actual price.

System Requirements

"Linux Mint requires 5 GB of space but recommends 10 GB. For an x86 processor it requires it to be 600MHz but recommends it being 1GHz. Linux Mint also requires 512 MB of RAM but recommends 1024 MB."[3] "Windows 7 can have a 32-bit or 64-bit chipset. For 32 and 64 bit processor Windows 7 recommends a 1GHz processor. For 32-bit Windows 7 also recommends having 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of free disk space. For 64-bit Windows 7 recommends having 2 GB of RAM and 20 GB of free disk space. For both architectures Windows 7 recommends having a Directx9 graphics processor with WDDM driver model 1.0."[4] Windows 8 recommends about the same system requirements as Windows 7.

Conclusion and Bench marking Results

     We decided to run 3dmark on the three operating systems. The pictures show the results of 3dmark on Windows 7 and 8. We couldn't run it on Linux Mint however as it is a windows .exe and we would need to install something named WINE to run it so we just decided to conclude that Linux isn't compatible with much windows software such as direct x without WINE. In our opinion Windows 7 is the best operating systems as we are used to it the most. While Windows 8 is easy to use when you first jump into it it may be complicated at times as the interface has changed from what it used to be in Windows 7. Windows 7 has a nice interface that everyone is used to and is very user friendly while plenty of others aren't used to Linux mint as it may be an operating system you have never used before which may be the problem as to why we found it hard to navigate when we first used it as we all had never used Linux before so it was something new to us. From test we can also conclude that since Windows 8 is new it is fairly glitchy, i would've liked to post the shut down time for Windows 8 however there is a glitch where it doesn't shutdown your computer it just turns off the monitor and logs you out which technically forces you to commit a hard shutdown which over time can mess up your computer while it may be fixed in the later updates it is a problem that some may have so if you were going to choose Windows 8 you would have to deal with some of the problems that may come with it. In conclusion, if you were going to get an OS i would suggest to get Windows 7 it is compatible with almost everything and it is the OS most of us know and have been using for years.

Windows 8 Results

Windows 7 Results 

  Made by: Mike Pierpont, Chris Kelly, and Arius Sanders

Works Cited

[1]"Accessibility Features That Windows 8 Offers." Windows.microsoft.com. Microsoft, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/What-accessibility-features-does-Windows-offer>.

[3]"Linux Mint." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Dec. 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint>.

[2]"Free Software." What Is Free Software? N.p., 7 Jan. 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>.

[4]"Windows 7 System Requirements." Windows.microsoft.com. Microsoft, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows7/products/system-requirements>.

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