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Amazon Linux vs Windows 10 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
3.9
Amazon Linux enhances ROI by reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and simplifying AWS integration, resulting in significant savings and productivity.
Sentiment score
1.3
Windows 10 increases efficiency with fewer crashes, better security, and user-friendly features, achieving ROI within 18 months.
With Amazon Linux, selecting and launching instances on a public cloud provider means the machine spins up in fewer than ten seconds, making it efficient.
Cloud Solution Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
One great feature is LTS, which is long-term support provided by Amazon itself.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
We saved 30% in terms of the cloud infrastructure.
Level 2 Software Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Amazon Linux support is praised for prompt, knowledgeable service, 24/7 availability, and effective response, influenced by support plans.
Sentiment score
4.8
Windows 10 users often prefer online resources over Microsoft support, despite its helpfulness and knowledgeable staff, due to faster solutions.
Amazon has the best expertise and they are available 24/7.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
Timely and helpful responses for performance, updates, or AWS integration issues.
QA Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It offers specific advantages and constraints depending on the use case.
Cloud Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
We have informed Microsoft, but the issue is still there, and it has been more than three to four months.
Technology\Cloud Architect | IT Infrastructure Security & Compliance at IDFC Bank
The customer service and support from Microsoft are quite responsive and generally good.
Senior Manager at Morgan Stanley
The Office 365 support is good, it takes a while sometimes to point to the problem, but they're good.
IT Administrator at a university with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.3
Amazon Linux excels in scalability, optimizing AWS integration for efficient, reliable performance and cost-effective dynamic scaling events.
Sentiment score
5.4
Windows 10 is adaptable and scalable for diverse organizations, offering seamless expansion and cross-device compatibility with regular updates.
The beauty here is that we can scale it immediately, which also saves cost.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
The scalability of Amazon Linux is very good; we run it on top of scalable EC2 instances, and we do not find any issues there.
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Amazon Linux is highly scalable because it allows for EC2 instances to scale up and down based on what you want.
Enterprise Cloud Operations Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
We can focus fully on our work without pressure or concerns about issues on our own PCs.
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
For scalability, I would rate it a nine or ten because performance-wise, Windows 10 has never given me those issues.
Senior Engagement Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I can increase the licensing amount easily when there is company growth or when new people join.
Assistant Vice President at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Amazon Linux is praised for reliability, stability, and security, ensuring minimal issues and no downtime in production environments.
Sentiment score
6.5
Windows 10 is appreciated for stability and reliability, despite occasional update issues and third-party software compatibility challenges.
My applications had a high availability (HA) environment, so even when one availability zone was down, traffic moved to a different availability zone without any issues.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
We evaluated Amazon Linux, and it is very stable.
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Amazon Linux is very stable and is continually maintained by Amazon.
Enterprise Cloud Operations Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The challenges were related to third-party agents and their supportability.
Technology\Cloud Architect | IT Infrastructure Security & Compliance at IDFC Bank
Windows 10 is stable for my daily development work, providing frequent security updates and user-friendly updates, which are excellent.
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
I would rate the stability of the product an eight.
Senior Engagement Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon Linux requires improvements in vendor integration, community support, GUI, documentation, flexibility, and package management for enhanced usability.
Windows 10 requires improvements in updates, security, user interface, stability, resource usage, pricing, and compatibility for better user experience.
Documentation explaining the differences between Ubuntu and Amazon Linux would be valuable.
full stack developer at 71Lbs
Since we are working in a real-time manner and need to scale things immediately, the time it takes to boot an instance and then deploy things is preventing me from giving it a perfect rating.
Level 2 Software Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
My advice for others looking into using Amazon Linux is to make sure the command line is easy and that Amazon Linux has more performance than other Linux environments and is more secure than other Linux environments as well.
DevOps Engineer at Wissen infotech
Microsoft can improve their Teams product because everybody uses Teams, and it's very clunky and unfriendly in terms of scrolling back, downloading files, and moving back and forth within the different teams.
Senior Engagement Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Investment in Windows 10 may not be ideal as the world is changing with advancing technology in the AI age.
DevOps Engineer at CipherTV Corp.
The transitions within Teams are not smooth, and call quality in meetings is not great.
Senior Manager at Morgan Stanley
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers favor Amazon Linux for its cost efficiency, free-tier usage, and reduced expenses with Graviton instances.
Enterprise buyers find Windows 10 licensing flexible but desire clearer pricing and competitive adjustments for better affordability.
With Amazon Linux itself, there is no cost associated with using it, so I would say it is very good from a pricing perspective.
Enterprise Cloud Operations Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I am paying around $300 to $400 per month because I use many services.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The pricing is free compared to many other operating systems that charge.
Cloud Solution Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
For those buying a Windows license, it might be better to buy a Windows 11 license.
DevOps Engineer at CipherTV Corp.
Windows is considered overpriced, especially given the normal software functionalities.
Design engineer at a construction company with 201-500 employees
Windows 10 is cost-effective when compared to other competitors available such as Mac and Linux.
BI developer at Jubilee Life Insurance Company Ltd
 

Valuable Features

Amazon Linux excels in AWS integration, security, and performance, featuring fast boot, auto-scaling, and efficient resource management.
Windows 10 is popular for its user-friendly interface, enhanced security, fast performance, and strong application and hardware compatibility.
Amazon Linux handles this automatically. It is optimized for EC2, AWS hardware and software, mostly secure and stable, and there is no additional cost.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
In terms of service security, there are many constraint security protocols and policies that help me create our own networks, security groups, and inline policies.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Amazon Linux's security updates have been helpful in general because I have had to be more specific in using the Identity Access Management (IAM) service so that we can have role-based permissions in preference to just keeping it open.
Independent Contractor at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
When using mapping software such as QGIS or ArcGIS, the system remains stable, especially when handling heavy files.
Co-Founder at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Device encryption is a main priority for us as developers in a FinTech company because we have the most secure user data.
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
The configuration management tools, such as SACM, are effective.
Technology\Cloud Architect | IT Infrastructure Security & Compliance at IDFC Bank
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
16th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windows 10
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.6
Number of Reviews
284
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Amazon Linux is 0.5%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows 10 is 2.9%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Windows 102.9%
Amazon Linux0.5%
Other96.6%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

SAURAB K GANGURDE - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
“Amazon Linux delivers automated security updates— including live kernel patching in AL2023—ensuring protected workloads with minimal manual effort and zero-downtime patching.”
One improvement for Amazon Linux would be stronger support for running it outside AWS. Although Amazon provides local VM images for VirtualBox and VMware, they are intended mainly for development and testing. Unlike Ubuntu, Debian, or Red Hat, Amazon Linux is not designed or fully supported as a production OS in on-prem or hybrid environments. Expanding official support outside AWS would offer more flexibility for teams that maintain mixed infrastructure. Another area for improvement is the community ecosystem. Compared to Ubuntu or Red Hat, Amazon Linux has a smaller community and fewer third-party resources or tutorials. A larger ecosystem would make troubleshooting and adoption easier. Finally, improving backward compatibility between Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023—especially around package management (DNF vs yum) and updated toolchains—would simplify upgrades for teams managing large fleets.
R Pranavan - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Collaborative development has become more secure and efficient for our team
We have faced some issues with Windows OneDrive because if one developer has a folder in a common OneDrive folder, it took some time to show it to others. It becomes somewhat difficult to work, as there is latency on that, so if you update that, it will be more efficient and useful for the developers. My main focus on Windows 10 is the giving of regular updates, so it might take some time to update Windows, which is also mandatory. As a developer, when we are working with Windows 10, if it takes more time to update and restart the PC, it affects our efficiency at work. If we could stop the updates on a regular basis or if they were delivered faster, it would be easier. As a developer, the frequent updates are too annoying for working on it, so it would be better if we stop the frequent updates and only provide the most important ones. Performance issues over time due to background apps and programs piling up and using an SSD instead of a hard disk are also concerns.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Government
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Performing Arts
8%
Educational Organization
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business125
Midsize Enterprise64
Large Enterprise120
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon Linux?
Right now, I don't think there are any specific areas to improve in Amazon Linux.
What is your primary use case for Amazon Linux?
The use cases for this in our company is that we have a customer that internally uses it for several applications, and they are a telecommunications company that has virtual machines and Linux mach...
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon Linux?
I use AWS, Azure, and I'm starting to use GCP, Google Cloud Platform. I have also used ZoomInfo. I have been using the product since its creation. I have not used the ZoomInfo product. With Amazon,...
What needs improvement with Windows 10?
We have faced some issues with Windows OneDrive because if one developer has a folder in a common OneDrive folder, it took some time to show it to others. It becomes somewhat difficult to work, as ...
What is your primary use case for Windows 10?
As a developer, we can work collaboratively, and Windows 10 is also good from a UI perspective. I chose to rate it an eight because I have faced issues when updates come in, which can be annoying. ...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Linux vs. Windows 10 and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.