Windows vs. Linux
Windows and Linux are both operating systems that are commonly used on personal computers. Although the both are operating systems they are very different in many ways. Windows is licensed through Microsoft Corporation and Linux is operated through the Linux License GNU General Public. The use of the two operating systems depends mostly on the user preferences and software that they intend to run on the computer. Due to the differences in the two operating systems the software intended to run on either system is not compatible with each operating system. One big and important difference in these two operating systems is the memory management. When speaking of memory within a computer it can be described as RAM (Random Access Memory) and memory such as storage within a hard drive to store the operating system for use.
Windows
Windows operating systems use a file system called NTFS (New Technology File System). This is a proprietary file system that was developed by Microsoft Corporation. This file system has been around for years and it is still very stable. Being stable is a positive factor about the NTFS, but it also have its negatives. Over a period of time the NTFS stores and moves files to random places and it will eventually start to slow down the hard drive. These files become fragmented and then will need to be defragmented to help clear some space and speed up the hard drive. Windows have a 32-bit and a 64-bit virtual address space. There is a couple key factors that involve memory organization on Windows operating system. A 32-bit operating system can recognize up to 4GB of RAM. A 64-bit operating system can recognize 4GB and above amount of RAM. User space and system space are two separate components. Processes can access only user space. The Virtual Memory Management stores page tables and other data in system space. Windows operating system allows each process to 4GB logical address space by using paging. The upper 2GB is kept for kernel mode and the lower 2GB is kept for user mode.
Linux
Linux uses a different file system that seem to work a bit better than the Windows file system. The Linux file system is more organized because it will continuously organize itself and catalogue’s locations. By doing this the operating system is more stable and fast because it doesn’t have to look too far for files on the hard drive because it is already organized. Linux memory management supports both 32-bit and 64-bit addresses. Linux also supports non-uniform memory access architectures also known as NUMA. Linux systems can be scaled from desktops and workstations to servers and supercomputers. Linux reserves 3GB of memory space for user mode and 1GB is kept for kernel mode.

References
Winface.com,. (2003). Retrieved 12 May 2014, from http://www.winface.com/inside/diff.html