Windows vs. Linux Security, Once More

TAGmclaren writes "The Register is running a very interesting article about Microsoft and Linux security. From the article: 'until now there has been no systematic and detailed effort to address Microsoft's major security bullet points in report form. In a new analysis published here, however, Nicholas Petreley sets out to correct this deficit, considering the claims one at a time in detail, and providing assessments backed by hard data. Petreley concludes that Microsoft's efforts to dispel Linux "myths" are based largely on faulty reasoning and overly narrow statistical analysis.' The full report is available here in HTML form, and here in PDF. Although the article does make mention of OS X, it would have been nice if the 'other' OS had been included in the detailed analysis for comparison."

Comments

So...

[Anonymous Coward]

...Linux is more secure than Windows. Amazing that it took a report to tell us what we already know.

summary

[uberjoe]

For the people who are slashdotted out, the article basically says that linux is more secure than windows. I will speak for everyone here when I say

Duh!

Is this really news?

Article Summary:

[haxor.dk]

Microsoft products are more vulnerable, despite that Microsoft uses statistics that says otherwise to make you believe otherwise.

Message to the moderators...

[WIAKywbfatw]

If you're the idiot who modded this off-topic then you clearly haven't got a fucking clue about:

1. What this story is about; and
2. Irony.

Re:meh...

[mistersooreams]

any system is only as secure as its users anyway

I respectfully disagree. In Windows, a window can pop-up from the Internet and, if you click the wrong button, potentially do anything to your computer. In Linux, if you're running as a user, the heart of the OS is protected from damage. Windows has recently evolved a user/admin architecture, but that doesn't change the fact that some systems are inherently more secure.

On the other hand, it is a valid argument that those who use Linux tend to be more tech-savvy anyway. That accounts for some of difference in problems thrown up by Linux and Windows, but not all of it. I'm no Linux fanboy, but Windows has some ground to make up in the security sector at least.