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Unpatched Linux Lives 3 Months on Internet
Allnighterking writes "The Honeypot project Honeynet.org has released their study on the expected lifetime of an unpatched default Linux install. If some of you remember AvanteGarde recently did a study of its own with several versions of Windows products and found that the average lifetime was about four minutes. Internet Week has an article on the study and the PDF with the full details of the study is available on Honeynet.org. Needless to say, from my viewpoint this is a good reason to limit Windows installations in IT that any PHB and/or Smiling Man can understand. Have them put into a spreadsheet and see what this kind of security means to their bottom line."
This is one time when the argument about Windows being a bigger target really applies. The rate of infection is proportional to the number of vulnerable hosts.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
It takes me about 1 1/2 hours to setup a Windows ME install like the one I've been using for 4 years. It's been problem free for that long. Boots in about 23 seconds. Responsive GUI. And you can run programs--you're not just limited to poorly written open source stuff.
Why doesn't someone put a fully patched windows box on the internet. Because it would last as long as a Linux box, that's why.