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Amazon FreeRTOS vs Ubuntu: What are the differences?
Introduction
In this analysis, we will highlight the key differences between Amazon FreeRTOS and Ubuntu for better understanding.
Architecture: The fundamental difference between Amazon FreeRTOS and Ubuntu lies in their architecture. Amazon FreeRTOS is designed for embedded microcontroller devices, providing an operating system optimized for low-power, connected devices. On the other hand, Ubuntu is a full-fledged operating system primarily intended for desktops, servers, and cloud environments with a focus on flexibility and ease of use.
Target Devices: Amazon FreeRTOS is tailored for resource-constrained devices such as microcontrollers, IoT devices, and edge devices where power efficiency and real-time performance are critical. This specificity allows Amazon FreeRTOS to provide features like power management and small memory footprint that cater to the needs of embedded systems. In contrast, Ubuntu caters to a wide range of devices, from personal computers to servers, and supports a broader range of hardware configurations.
Development Ecosystem: Another significant difference is in the development ecosystem of Amazon FreeRTOS versus Ubuntu. Amazon FreeRTOS offers seamless integration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT services, enabling developers to easily build and deploy IoT applications on the cloud. Conversely, Ubuntu provides a vast ecosystem of software packages and tools through its package manager, enabling developers to customize their environment for various computing tasks.
Licensing Model: Amazon FreeRTOS follows a dual licensing model, offering both open-source and commercial licensing options. The open-source license allows developers to freely use and modify the software, while the commercial license provides additional features and support for enterprises. On the other hand, Ubuntu is distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), allowing users to freely use, modify, and redistribute the software without any licensing fees.
Community Support: When it comes to community support, Ubuntu boasts a large and active user community that contributes to the development and troubleshooting of the operating system. This extensive community support network ensures timely updates, bug fixes, and assistance for users. In comparison, Amazon FreeRTOS, being a more specialized platform, may have a smaller community but benefits from the backing of Amazon's resources and expertise in IoT and cloud technologies.
Summary
In summary, the key differences between Amazon FreeRTOS and Ubuntu lie in their architecture, target devices, development ecosystem, licensing model, and community support, catering to distinct use cases and preferences in the embedded and general-purpose computing domains.
Ubuntu always let people do what they want to do, it pushes its users to know what they are doing, what they want and helps them learn what they ignore.
Ubuntu is simple, works out-of-the-box after installation and has a incredibly huge community behind.
Ubuntu is lightweight and open, in the way, that the user has access to free AND efficient applications (most of the time, without ads) and, even if learning its folder structure is challenging, once done, you are really able to call yourself "someone who knows what is in your computer".
Windows, in comparison, is heavy, tends to make decision for you and always enable tracking application by default. grr
It has a simple user interface, of course, but on the stability point of view, it is hard to compete with something simpler (even with less features).
Personal preference : I prefer something simple that works 99% of the time, than a full-featured auto-magical system that works 50% of the time (and ask if the good version of the driver is really installed...)
Coming from a Debian-based Linux background, using the Ubuntu base image for my Docker containers was a natural choice. However, the overhead, even on the impressively-slimmed Hub images, was hard to justify. Seeking to create images that were "just right" in size, without unused packages or dependencies, I made the switch to Alpine.
Alpine's modified BusyBox has a surprising amount of functionality, and the package repository contains plenty of muslc-safe versions of commonly-used packages. It's been a valuable exercise in doing more with less, and, as Alpine is keen to point out, an image with fewer packages makes for a more sustainable environment with a smaller attack surface.
My only regret is that Alpine's documentation leaves a lot to be desired.
Ubuntu is much more faster over Windows and helps to get software and other utilities easier and within a short span of time compared to Windows.
Ubuntu helps to get robustness and resiliency over Windows. Ubuntu runs faster than Windows on every computer that I have ever tested. LibreOffice (Ubuntu's default office suite) runs much faster than Microsoft Office on every computer that I have ever tested.
Global familiarity, free, widely used, and as a debian distro feels more comfortable when rapidly switching between local macOS and remote command lines.
CentOS does boast quite a few security/stability improvements, however as a RHEL-based distro, differs quite significantly in the command line and suffers from slightly less frequent package updates. (Could be a good or bad thing depending on your use-case and if it is public facing)
At the moment of the decision, my desktop was the primary place I did work. Due to this, I can't have it blow up on me while I work. While Arch is interesting and powerful, Ubuntu offers (at least for me) a lot more stability and lets me focus on other things than maintaining my own OS installation.
Pros of Amazon FreeRTOS
Pros of Ubuntu
- Free to use230
- Easy setup for testing discord bot96
- Gateway Linux Distro57
- Simple interface54
- Don't need driver installation in most cases9
- Open Source6
- Many active communities6
- Software Availability3
- Easy to custom3
- Many flavors/distros based on ubuntu2
- Lightweight container base OS1
- Great OotB Linux Shell Experience1
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Cons of Amazon FreeRTOS
Cons of Ubuntu
- Demanding system requirements5
- Adds overhead and unnecessary complexity over Debian4
- Snapd installed by default2
- Systemd1