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Security FUD On Linux

Posted by Hemos on from the throwing-it-around dept.

bobmatnyc writes "InfoWorld reports that Microsoft is planning an "security assault on Linux" by hyping results of a commissioned study pointing to the number of security holes in Linux vs. Windows, the number of days it takes to fill the patches, and by raising questions as to the reliability of code submitted throught the OS process. I suppose if they focus very narrowly on one measurement of security, completely ignore script-level vulnerabilities, default settings vulnerabilities (such as root access for all users), and the demographics of the user population, as well as a zillion other things I'm not clever enough to think of off the top of my head, they may have a point. "

3 of 679 comments (clear)

  1. It would not come as a shock by Progman3K · · Score: 2, Flamebait

    It would not come as a shock if we found out MS was behind the attempt to add a root exploit to the Linux kernel that happened last week...

    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/06/0582 49 &mode=thread&tid=106&tid=185

    Just what lows are they willing to sink to?

    Or am I just paranoid?

    Let's see, a corporation that stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to an open-source collective effort...

    If I were MS, I know I'd be afraid and might even do something like that....

    Has there been any new information on the security breach?

    --
    I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
  2. Why is this FUD? by nertz_oi · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Linux IS a security risk

    Like it or not, there are just as many vulns in Linux as there are in Windows. Get out of your open-source-or-die denial.

    Windows is a totally different operating system then Linux. Of course there are going to be differences on the way its manipulated.

  3. Turn this around? by rmdyer · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Isn't this how Microsoft wins?

    First they ignore you...as the Unix establishment did from 1985-1995.

    Then they laugh at you...as the Unix establishment did from 1995 to 2000.

    Then they fight you...as the Unix/Linux establishment is doing from 2000 on.

    Then Microsoft wins...aka Longhorn.

    The war has been going on for some time already. Maybe you just havent been around long enough to see it clearly. Will this be cyclic with Linux?

    +2