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Windows 8 'Borrowed' Features From Linux
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Microsoft in its blog “Building 8” explained their new native USB 3.0 stack. The news was no doubt greeted but along with comments that Linux has been doing that for three years.
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Friday, February 10, 2012:
Design, ideology and primary audience are the main distributions where Linux and Windows 8 differ greatly. However, they all have been developed on the basic principles of OS design and it is quite obvious that there will be some overlap, in-fact they are bound. According to some Linux fans, Microsoft has been stealing from the open source community for a long time. And now Microsoft is nearing the point where the company simply appropriates good Linux features.
Now let us get back to business and take a sneak peek into new features of Windows 8 and where actually did they come from...
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1. File copy dialogue
In an attempt to make things more transparent, Microsoft put into action an improved copy, move, rename and delete dialog that not only shows the progress of each operation, but also a graph and the ability to pause individual copy operations.
Well, the new feature is pretty much like Linux’s Dolphin and Nautilus file managers. The file transfer dialogue also allows users to pause operations and view multiple copy jobs in one window.
* Microsoft stepped ahead here. Window 8 does not stop the entire process when any problem occurs with a file operation, but keeps these problems in the error queue.
2. ISO mounting
Microsoft finally announces mount ISO files in Windows 8. Once mounted, a new drive letter appears in Windows Explorer that represents the virtual CD/DVD ROM. And this cool option lets users to get rid of third-party tools like, Power ISO, Daemon Tools or Virtual CloneDrive.
* No Linux distro does ISO mounting as easily as Windows 8.
3. Windows To Go
Windows To Go option allows users to create a bootable Windows 8 environment on USB 2.0/3.0 flash drive. It even supports unplugging the drive, which causes the OS to freeze momentarily until you plug the Windows To Go stick back in.
* Live Environments have been around for a long time in Linux, but their performance was never up to par excellence with a congenitally running OS.
4. The Metro UI
Metro UI appeared more than 5 years ago in Media Center and Zune hardware. First time users of Metro UI will see that it is a very unique way of working with a device.
Before Microsoft, Linux distros, Ubuntu and GNOME have tried to overhaul the user interface to fit the “one UI to rule them all.” Infact UI of Linux updates were done with Ubuntu in mind.
* Making the new Metro UI the default view of the new OS, is definitely not an easy step for Microsoft. It’s risky indeed.
5. Social integration
Social media integration has now been included in Linux distributions for a long time now. The “ME” menu, allows you to update your status to all your accounts and get feeds directly on your desktop. Linux users again pointed out that similar has been done before when Microsoft added Photo Picker, Tweet@Rama and Socialite app to the developer preview.
6. Native support for USB 3.0
Microsoft in its blog “Building 8” explained their new native USB 3.0 stack. The news was no doubt greeted but along with comments that Linux has been doing that for three years.
7. Cloud integration
Linux and Windows 8 both have the feature that allows you to sync data with the cloud. Free 5 GB online backup service is provided in Ubuntu 11 and you can enhance the storage capacity further by purchasing an additional 20 GB for $2.99 a month.
* Windows 8 is going to integrate with SkyDrive's 25 GB online storage, which is not just for photos or music, but also allows for hosting your user account.
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8. ReFS
Resilient File System, codenamed Protogon (ReFS) is Microsoft’s next generation file system. It will first debut in Windows Server 8, but client adoption is well underway. The system itself is very much similar to ZFS (the Z File System) and the Linux-derived Btrfs (B-tree file system) as it also supports copy-on-write snapshots when coupled with Microsoft Storage Spaces.
Tahir Zubair, EFYTIMES News Network
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