Slashdot Mirror
Linux Distributions Respond to Forrester
dave writes "GNU/Linux vendors Debian, Mandrake, Red Hat, and SUSE have joined together to give a common statement about the Forrester report entitled "Is Linux more Secure than Windows?". Despite the report's claim to incorporate a qualitative assessment of vendor reactions to serious vulnerabilities, it treats all vulnerabilities are equal, regardless of their risk to users. As a result, the conclusions drawn by Forrester have extremely limited real-world value for customers assessing the practical issue of how quickly serious vulnerabilities get fixed."
WTF? Why does anyone buy shit from these people.
The executive management of the agency that I work for pays Meta $500/hr to evaluate project plans... they always rubber stamp whatever answer the execs want.
No one buys reports from these companies to actually learn anything. The primary purpose these companies serve is to give companies objective sounding quotes to pepper their marketing material with and to convince risk averse managers that they are safely following the largest herd.
-_-
From tests conducted at an observatory overlooking the skies of Los Angeles, researchers have concluded from the gathered data that the sky is indeed red.
Buried in all the hoopla, they never tell you that all the smoggy red photos were taken at around the time sunsets happen.
Statistics and numbers in general can be thrown any which way to serve the purpose of the writer. It's an unfortunate side-effect of being biased by nature. Even if someone were to WANT to be impartial, they'll often offer a slant merely by presenting data a certain way.
It's difficult to find people to trust when money is on the line somewhere. With Microsoft's track record and its acknowledged need for "Trustworthy Computing" (a marketing term), it's difficult to take their word. Unfortunately, with that money, they have enough marketing power to buy research, and flood biz execs with enough propaganda...and when they constantly hear that kind of information from what they'd consider mainstream sources, they start to believe it as fact.
Now that's dangerous.
I'm staying with Linux and my money goes with Linux. After two years of running Linux I've not been hacked once, I've not gotten ONE SINGLE VIRUS, I've not had to look at one single pop-up add that I didn't want to look at, I've not had to look at one single BSOD, I've not had to reboot one single time unless I chose to.
I don't have to spend all my time in a panic worried about patches and viruses and other such nonsense. Neither do my friends and family, I converted them to Linux too. Now I don't have to worry about them either.
What does Windows offer me that I can't do with Linux? Nothing. Why should I use Windows which is constant trouble and extremely high maintenence and is a constant cash drain, versus the ONE TIME PURCHASE (if I choose to purchase v. free download) of a Linux distro, in my case Suse, that is mine, with no strings attached and will cost me no further money, ever?
Once I own the $89 Suse distro I never have to spend another penny on it or any other software, ever. It works. It's secure. Anyone that says it isn't is a stupid SOB or a liar or both.