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Amazon Linux vs Windows 11 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
5.7
Users found Windows 11 cost-effective, especially with free upgrades, though some questioned the ROI without noticeable enhancements.
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
Windows 11 is more stable compared to its earlier versions.
IT Manager
It has definitely saved time and generated a return on investment as well.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
 

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
6.0
Windows 11 support is generally quick and knowledgeable, though accessibility varies, especially between newer and older hardware.
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
Everything should work perfectly if you have new hardware that matches the Windows 11 requirements.
Head of IT department at Monetars
For issues that require level three or level four support, they initiate a process with Microsoft to address the problem.
Telecom Project Consultant at Nexa Resources
The technical support team’s response time is very slow.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
 

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
5.6
Windows 11 is praised for scalability, offering smooth installation, quick deployment, and adaptability despite some hardware challenges.
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
The system is used to control the whole site and the air traffic in every city.
Software Integration Engineer at Thales
We faced challenges integrating it in multi-app environments, requiring complex API setups.
Associate Vice President at Rishabh Software
The solution's scalability is good because it allows you to run a large number of virtual machines.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
 

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
6.0
Windows 11 is praised for performance but criticized for stability issues and frequent update disruptions, with mixed user feedback.
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
With the tool, we are able to control airplane traffic.
Software Integration Engineer at Thales
The solution's high level of stability ensures that the machine doesn't go down multiple times.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
The stability can be influenced by the status and specifications of our company PCs.
IT Specialist at EMA
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon Linux requires improvements in vendor integration, community support, GUI, documentation, flexibility, and package management for enhanced usability.
Windows 11 needs stability, security, and interface improvements as users face compatibility issues, complex installations, and high pricing.
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
For a better experience, Windows 11 should be improved to take fewer resources.
Delivery Manager at Ford Motor Company
The needed improvements in Windows 11 include that the Copilot integration needs a better user interface experience with rich features, alongside making a very simple UI experience as well.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
The product should focus more on security, particularly Outlook.
Manager IT at Diamond Fabrics, Sapphire
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers favor Amazon Linux for its cost efficiency, free-tier usage, and reduced expenses with Graviton instances.
Enterprise users see Windows 11 pricing as high yet fair, benefiting from integrated licensing, bulk deals, and deployment advantages.
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
On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten.
IT Manager
The tool is expensive.
Cyber security manager at Apparel
I have a university license, so I do not pay anything for Windows 11.
Associate Professor at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Amazon Linux excels in AWS integration, security, and performance, featuring fast boot, auto-scaling, and efficient resource management.
Windows 11 offers a user-friendly interface, enhanced security, productivity features, and seamless integration with Microsoft tools, boosting its appeal.
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
The tool's most valuable feature is its stability.
Telecom Project Consultant at Nexa Resources
Windows is one of the best operating systems an enterprise or user can use.
Cyber security manager at Apparel
The tool is user-friendly.
Manager IT at Diamond Fabrics, Sapphire
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
16th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windows 11
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
49
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 11 is 8.3%, up from 4.2% 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 118.3%
Amazon Linux0.5%
Other91.2%
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.
Naveenkumar Lakshman - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
Daily work has become smoother and organized as I manage calls, notes, and files efficiently
The best features that Windows 11 offers in my opinion are Notepad++ and the integration, as I could use Microsoft 365 on it and I could also run many applications. If I want to use Linux, then I could use Windows Subsystem for Linux as well. Most of the industry-wide applications are easily installable on Windows 11 and user-friendly as well. Windows 11 has definitely impacted my organization positively because you could see that all the day-to-day activities, most of our professionals would use a Windows system itself. In terms of productivity, Windows 11 has made a positive difference as we use a mail inbox with its links and Microsoft Teams, which is available. Windows 11 is natively installable and very friendly with the compatible operating system, and alongside, we have other applications that are available. Edge browser, which is the default browser for Windows 11, is also a good browser and a very decent option. Additionally, we have other features available for the day-to-day activities. You can see it gives you a basic calendar, calculator, and camera options, and you have the File Explorer. You get a pretty decent operating system for a layman to work on a day-to-day basis. While there are certain tasks that consume a certain amount of time, Windows 11 reduces the time. The usability and architecture, how it is built, makes a user get into a state where they don't need to spend excessive effort on the task to be done. You can get everything through a UI-based interface, and everything is sorted and very simple. Over the period of time, the operating system evolution by Microsoft is good for the individual workspace.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Government
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
13%
University
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise25
 

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 do you like most about Windows 11?
We use Windows 11 for our workstation’s daily operations.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windows 11?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Windows 11 is that it is bundled with the hardware. It comes with a pre-installed license in the operating system. When the laptop or deskt...
What needs improvement with Windows 11?
One area where Windows 11 can be improved is the Copilot that has been added. It should have a good, decent user interface experience. The user interface experience should be enhanced in terms of C...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Linux vs. Windows 11 and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.