Windows More Secure than Linux? Yep
WinInfo | at | by Mike
For at least the first eight months of 2001, Open Source poster boy Linux was actually far less secure than Windows, according to the reputable NTBugTraq, which is hosted by SecurityFocus, the leading provider of security information on the Internet (the company's 2001 statistics are only available through August 2001 for the time being). According to the company, Windows 2000 Server had less than half as many security vulnerabilities than Linux in 2001. And when you break it down by actual Linux distributions, it had fewer vulnerabilities than RedHat Linux 7.0, MandrakeSoft Linux Mandrake 7.2 and it was tied with UNIX leader Sun Solaris 8.0 and 7.0. A look over the previous five years--where the data is more complete--also shows that NT/2000 had far fewer security vulnerabilities than Linux, each year, despite the fact that Windows is deployed on a far wider basis than any version of Linux. So once again, folks, you have to ask yourself: Is Windows really less secure than Linux? Or is this one of those incredible perception issues? For more information and the complete stats, please visit the SecurityFocus Web site. I'll be checking back on this to see how all of 2001 shapes up, of course.