How To Argue That Open Source Software Is Secure?

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @04:33PM from the beyond-because-i-say-so-dammit dept.

Smidge207 writes "Lately there has been a huge push by Certified Microsoft Professionals and their companies to call (potential) clients and warn them of the dangers of open source. This week I received calls from four different customers saying that they were warned that they are dangerously insecure because they run open source operating systems or software, because 'anyone can read the code and hack you with ease.' Other colleagues in the area also have noticed that three local Microsoft Partners have been trying to strike fear in the minds of companies that respond, 'Yes, we use open source or Linux' when the sales call comes in. I know this is simply a sales tactic by these companies, but how do I fix the damage these tactics cause? I have several customers who now want more than my word about the security of systems that have worked for them flawlessly for 5-6 years, with minimal expense outside of upgrades and patching for security. Does anyone have a good plan or sources of reliable information that can be used to inform the customer?"

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Re:That's a new low by djupedal · 2009-02-10 16:57 · Score: 1, Troll

> Never understood why people didn't like KDawson
Mod up
- /. has been taking $$ from MS for some time now...funny how that works.
Re:Of course... by man_of_mr_e · 2009-02-10 17:03 · Score: 0, Troll

Actually, if you compare, say IIS's track record to Apaches over the last 6 years, Apache looks pretty bad...

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Re:Test, test, test by Aphoxema · 2009-02-11 00:50 · Score: 0, Troll

Just ping it a bunch and say it's secure because it didn't pong you with the admin password.

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