"The Great Security Debate: Linux vs. Windows"
E-Commerce Times (03/07/01); Lyman, Jay
The debate whether Microsoft operating systems or Unix and Linux systems
have better security continues. Conventional wisdom says Microsoft systems,
with their plethora of user-friendly features, are more vulnerable. Experts
tend to agree, contending that Unix or Linux open standard systems are more
secure, as the majority of these systems are not integrated into other
applications such as Microsoft Windows. Still, Microsoft has made serious
efforts to tighten security, while open source systems such as Linux, which
benefit from many knowledgeable producers who have an interest in keeping
the system secure, are also troubled by "garage applications" producers who
often could not care less about security. "It's not surprising that Linux
records a high number of vulnerabilities because Linux is an OS that works
as both a desktop and a server, and everything in between," says Bryan
Russell, an incident analyst for SecurityFocus.com. Regardless,
SecurityFocus.com reports that Microsoft operating systems such as Windows
98 and Windows 2000 averaged almost 70 percent more vulnerabilities last
year than Linux.
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