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Microsoft to the world: we have fewer bugs. Na! Na!
Microsoft has published a study that compares the number of security vulnerabilities in Vista to those in OS X, Windows XP and various Linux distributions. To allow for an fair comparison, he only measured flaws that were reported and patched in the first 90 days after the official launch.
Windows Vista comes out winning by a margin. The software received only 12 patches during the first 90 days. OS X 10.4 in its first 90 days plugged 60 holes, Windows XP 36 and Red Hat, Suse and Ubuntu between 74 and 281.
Counting vulnerabilities is one way tot measure security, but certainly not the only way. Despite the 281 flaws that were patched in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 workstation or the 60 that his OS X, machines running those operating systems don't face the same threats from spyware, rootkits and viruses that are plaguing Windows XP in droves.
If you want a safe home, you don't just buy an expensive alarm system – you also move to a good neighborhood. Attackers are likely to shift their focus on OS X and Linux if they become more prevalent, or if they become easier to target than Windows. But until then, Windows is still leading the least secure environment around.
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Not to mention that they patched 12 and left the remaining 15 unpatched!
The reason cited was that "they were not critical" :)
Obviously, it's Vista.
Isn't it. ;)
Posted by: Bipin 3~ Upadhyay | June 22, 2007 10:10 PM
I agree.
But the most I've seen is the "proof of concept" virus for Mac and Linux. Early on, I got such a virus on my linux box. In fact, it even politely told me it was a worm, and what vulnerabilities it used to get into my system.
Also, I don't know if lowest number of reported bugs is a good thing. It may very well mean that Microsoft is only depending on reported bugs, rather than having a dedicated community to find them and eradicate them. If you look at it that way, The Linuxes are being proactive, while microsoft is not. That's hardly something I would advertise if I were them.
Posted by: Samuel Moshe | June 27, 2007 6:43 PM