on June 19, 2020 For users who are looking to try something new, or who are tired of their Mac OS or Windows operating systems, now just might be the time to switch to something else. The Mac OS system currently uses a UNIX core, which would make switching from Mac OS to Linux a fairly smooth transition. Windows users, on the other hand, will need to make some adjustments. The following tutorial will compare the Linux operating system to Microsoft Windows. Microsoft Windows vs. Linux File System Microsoft Windows files are stored on different data drives (C: D: E:). On Linux, beginning with the root directory, files are organized in a tree structure. This directory is the beginning of the file system. It branches out further across a variety of other subdirectories. The root directory is designated with a forward slash (/).