What is the difference between unix and windows?

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Unix and Windows use completely different paradigms for run-time loading of code. Before you try to build a module that can be dynamically loaded, be aware of how your system works.

In Unix, a shared object (.so) file contains code to be used by the program, and also the names of functions and data that it expects to find in the program. When the file is joined to the program, all references to those functions and data in the file's code are changed to point to the actual locations in the program where the functions and data are placed in memory. This is basically a link operation.

In Windows, a dynamic-link library (.dll) file has no dangling references. Instead, an access to functions or data goes through a lookup table. So the DLL code does not have to be fixed up at runtime to refer to the program's memory; instead, the code already uses the DLL's lookup table, and the lookup table is modified at runtime to point to the functions and data.

In Unix, there is only one type of library file (.a) which contains code from several object files (.o). During the link step to create a shared object file (.so), the linker may find that it doesn't know where an identifier is defined. The linker will look for it in the object files in the libraries; if it finds it, it will include all the code from that object file.

In Windows, there are two types of library, a static library and an import library (both called .lib). A static library is like a Unix .a file; it contains code to be included as necessary. An import library is basically used only to reassure the linker that a certain identifier is legal, and will be present in the program when the DLL is loaded. So the linker uses the information from the import library to build the lookup table for using identifiers that are not included in the DLL. When an application or a DLL is linked, an import library may be generated, which will need to be used for all future DLLs that depend on the symbols in the application or DLL.

Alok Dubey

  • Nov 2nd, 2005
 

You may compare it as MS-DOS and UNIX as MS-DOS is predecessor of Windows just like that unix is for LINUX.We can't compare unix with windows.

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rocky65536

  • Sep 21st, 2009
 

             UNIX                                 Windows                              
        Multi user                              SIngle user
        CLUI                                      GUI
        Secure                                   less secure

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ranjith54

  • Mar 17th, 2010
 

Windows does not support multitasking, and multiprocessing of data, Unix based machines are used for high end servers.  Most of the unix based systems are having thier own architechture like for Sun it has having thier their server architechture sunfire, sun blade, sun sparc, work stations.
They are mostly command line based they provide more security level compared to Windows O/s.

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Gopal jee dubey

  • Sep 30th, 2015
 

UNIX is a multi-user operating system that provides CLUI (Command Line User Interface) while Windows is an operating system that provides GUI. Windows eliminates the need to memorize commands for the command line (MS-DOS).

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Jerrod Frost

  • Sep 6th, 2018
 

Im assuming you mean *nix based systems as Unix itself doesnt really exist in use anymore. Unix styled systems would tend to include MacOS, Linux, Solaris, AIX, etc. The differences are NOT technically ease of use. Some would clearly argue MacOS is simpler than Windows. The biggest differences is Windows hasnt had an open source alternative until recently with ReactOS, where as Unix was closed source but has had several Open Source and Closed Source alternatives. *nix styled systems are also multi-user allowing login and use by multiple people at the same time where Windows is geared towards one user at a time. The other difference is *nix based systems sit on top of a CLI (command line interface) with a GUI (Graphical User Interface) on top. If you have a graphical failure /crash/issue in windows, youre done unless the system was setup headless. In *nix based systems, you get dropped back into the CLI interface where you can perform troubleshooting, checking logs, etc and even relaunching the GUI. Another arguable point is *nix based systems revolve around the use of CLI so CLI is much more powerful in a *nix based system. While CLI knowledge isnt required to use a *nix based system, CLI roots werent abandoned and were still a big part of how the system worked and was depended on. Windows on the other hand after 3.1 ditched much of DOS. While comprehensive help libraries used to exist, they were no more in the release of windows 95. Much of the CLI was no more in favor of the GUI. Granted over the years Microsoft has been bringing it all back in powershell and making powershell more friendly like bash, Id argue it doesnt have the clout that bash/*nix based systems do considering many of the commands have been the same if not similar throughout their evolution.

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