Question Windows vs Linux: Pros/Cons To Online Marketplaces As A Seller

[VA_Vern]

Ive always been a Windows user and would be considered a noob in terms of what I know of Linux. I sell fulltime online across a couple different marketplaces and Ive been debating on experimenting with a Linux Distro just to play around with.

For futuristic purposes, Id like some opinions and advice on what much more knowledgeable people than I have to say about the Pros & Cons when it comes to Safety/Security/Privacy between Windows vs Linux with selling/buying online specifically in mind.

If this is too bland or broad of a question feel free to ask any specifics and I will answer if I know how to. Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

In the right hands, either can be secure.
In the wrong hands, chaos can result from either.

What, specifically, do you mean by "selling/buying online" ?
Unless you're hosting your own website/sales platform, what is on your desktop is irrelevant.

 

[Grobe]

I also not seeing if OP is meaning just using some random web browser to buy items on random web stores, or talking about selling a computer and question what OS should be installed when sold to some stranger.

If first option, then the answer is already given. But I also jut want to add that safety within web browsers and password management I think are more important than the sheer choice of OS. Of course, with Windows it's easier to just snag a random exe files from the web that is being described as being able to do amazing stuff - compared to Linux. But in the end, the problem isn't about the OS but rather what is in front of the computer screen leaning over the keyboard. For both OS, it is possible to deny any updates for it, and it probably doesn't matter - it is unsafe anyway regardless of the OS.

If the second option, there is one prerequisitement needed in order to answer:

• If laptop or bought with OS preinstaled. Here is two options.
  • You can either restore Windows back (not remembering the precise way, but easily to google for it) to it's original state. I did this with a laptop at work where two piece of software was acting up against each other and caused problems (no, it was not any kind of anti-virus as you might expect) - so I did this a couple of times in order to see what combinations of installed programs that was acting up on each other.
  • If prepared when brand new, use some software to create a disk image. The disk image must be located on another unit, normally a usb hdd, and use same software to restore the contents before you sell the computer.
• Otherwise, you can probably just install Windows without a license (let the buyer pay MS) or you can buy it yourself <disclaimer case see comment below>. Installation of Linux is of course also possible, but probably less potential buyers.

disclaimer: As I have use only Linux at home for a while (the last Windows version I bought was W7) so therefore I haven't investigated in the options (cons and pros) of installing a licensed version of W10 with the purpose of selling it.

 

[USAFRet]

I also not seeing if OP is meaning just using some random web browser to buy items on random web stores, or talking about selling a computer and question what OS should be installed when sold to some stranger.

Or running and hosting a web store, selling random stuff.

Answers will remain as unclear as the question.

 

[Viking2121]

Well I guess the only thing would be is the distro compatible with everything, Do you have a label maker, or one of them machines that print out the shipping labels? That might not work right on linux, I'd definitely run a live usb or swap out the SSD/HDD just to be safe and can fall back to windows if needed, could do it in a VM but its not really native though and can have its own set of problems passing threw devices..

If all you are doing is using the browser to list things for sale and you ship it out the manual way, then Linux should be fine for that, and the only thing I'd worry about is if the distro you are looking at works with you heardwear which a live USB can tell ya that.

Good Luck!

 

[GoofyOne]

I think it just depends what the user is expecting to use the machine for. Linux is fine for general computer use, web browsing, email, office work (Libre Office suite), database work may need a bit more effort and expertise. PostgreSQL, MySQL are probably the main full featured databases.

Linux can be a good option if they are going to run a server. ie: fileserver, or web server, email server etc.

Maybe just give them the option of Linux or MS WIndows ... but they will also have to pay the MS Windows activation fee.


{GoofyOne's 2c worth .... which may or may not be actually worth 2c}

 

[Murissokah]

Expect a learning curve when changing OS. There will be some frustration with things that you used to know how to do effortlessly and now you need to look up. You'll be cursing the way some things are done. In time, as you get used to it, you'll be able to do about the same things in either OS. My advice for this is that if you don't have a clear reason to change OS, don't do it.

Some valid reasons I can think of to switch to Linux are:

1. You want to host web applications. I find linux a better fit because I can run a server that is secure and efficient with under 1GB of OS. To do the same in Windows Server I'd need a 50GB OS install with thousands of features I won't use. (Yes, there's server core, but so many things made for Windws expect a graphic interface that you're better of with Linux).
2. You want/need to deal with containers. Containers are very useful to package applications with their environments, and make it easier to automate development and deployment workflows. 99% of time when dealing with containers it will be Linux containers. So running Linux removes the complexity of having a second kernel to deal with (Like with WSL or VMs on Windows)
3. You want to automate your infrastructure. Again, the fact that Linux distros can be so much more lightweight than Windows is a boon when automating. And some things are simpler to automate via scripts, like scheduling tasks for example. Log management is a lot simpler on Linux too, as Windows uses a mess of databases with inconsistent naming schemes to store event logs while Linux just has files for each one.
4. You need to deal with multiple OS`s anyway (maybe you have to manage web servers), so you want to be more familiar with it.

As for security, I'd say it's more about how you use it. It's true there's a bit less attack surface in Linux simply because most distros don't have huge amount of stuff Windows does. Then again, because Linux is so often used in servers, it is also targeted by malefactors. So get used to keeping things up do date and limiting exposition.

 

[ComplexNumbers]

Linux is going to offer most people more options for achieving what they care about. For example, suppose you think RAM usage is important, you can use Alpine Linux and make it your daily driver where you play Steam games, develop software, use office apps, do professional photography, there are almost no limitations. Suppose you think reliability is the most important thing, and want to be able to reuse your system configuration on other systems, or you want to reuse your old configuration if you switch to a new PC. Then there is little that is competitive with NixOS.

Overall, I'd argue that FreeBSD is better in the basics than macOS, Linux, and Windows:

• file system: The only thing Linux has that competes with ZFS is Btrfs. Although Linux engineers always pretend that Btrfs is much faster than ZFS, unfortunately ZFS on FreeBSD is a lot faster than Btrfs on Linux in 90% of the situations. Linux engineers always say that Btrfs is much more advanced than ZFS, but that is not true. ZFS can compress certain data at 50% and gain speed. Btrfs loses significant performance in this situation. ZFS is a 128-bit system, and Btrfs is only a 64-bit system, meaning ZFS systems can hold countless times more data. ZFS is the only option if you want maximum reliability, in 2022. Btrfs still has many bugs and glitches. What about ZFS on Linux? It's +- 2.5 times slower (less IOPS) than running it on FreeBSD, and if you update your Linux system with a ZFS installation, it's not uncommon to encounter unexpected problems. Windows and macOS don't have file systems similar to ZFS currently, so they're simply no competition at all.
• networking: In general, in most situations, FreeBSD has the fastest network performance, Linux simply cannot follow in some situations.
• firewalls: The Linux firewalls are less easy to configure and have lower performance than PF on FreeBSD.
• the default shell: FreeBSD's Almquist shell has mostly the same syntax as Bash (Linux), but it's on average 4 times faster in performance.
• package manager: pkg is one of the best package managers out there, very reliable and lightning fast. Not all Linux package managers are equally good.
• audio: FreeBSD has the best audio stack of all operating systems. You notice in Ubuntu when you play sound in music or in movies that the sound is less pure and less detailed. This is because FreeBSD uses an independent implementation of OSS4, where Ubuntu uses ALSA, which, despite its name, is less advanced and less qualitative than OSS4.
• stability: FreeBSD's overall stability is unbeatable, I haven't gotten into a complete system crash after five years of use. So you can always do Ctrl + Alt + F4 and you'll be able to continue working in FreeBSD. Even Debian can't always guarantee that.
• security: BSD systems are usually more secure than Linux/windows/macOS. Because it has so few users, very few hackers develop malware for BSD systems. Furthermore, BSD is often more secure than Linux, because security is one of the basic principles of BSD systems. FreeBSD also keeps its users better informed about potential security issues: The delusions of debian
• open source: Many popular Linux systems have moved away from their open source roots, making it easy and popular to install proprietary software. FreeBSD does not participate in this. And as a result you learn to work with software that you will also be able to use on Linux/macOS/windows, so that what you learn always remains relevant.

 

[USAFRet]

Linux is going to offer

Sorry, but your entire post, promoting FreeBSD over anything else, is mostly irrelevant.

We have NO idea what the OP was actually asking for, even after questions regarding this.