Although exploits of facilities implemented in standard linux kernels, such as arp requests or ICMP echo requests, are possible, they are far rarer than exploits of higher-level network services, such as HTTP or SSH. Consequently, a basic install of a distribution such as Gentoo, in which only those basic network services implemented in the kernel are active, would likely remain unexploited for years. Of course, this only shows that in the case of Linux, the `base install' does not provide for a very good test. (In practice, people are far more likely to use Microsoft Windows, or Linux distributions with a more expansive `base install' than Gentoo or Debian, in their base configurations.)
As another user commented, server software can benefit greatly from a large variety of optimizations, since better performance translates directly into supporting more users on fewer/cheaper servers.
Optimizations also have significant effect in software designed to perform complex computations, such as scheduling.
Also, the trend of ignoring performance considerations with the claim that modern hardware makes optimizations obselete is precisely what leads to the trend, particularly among Microsoft software, for the software to become significantly slower with each revision.
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You can use LaTeX on MS Windows also, and then you can use bibtex for your bibliography.
Although exploits of facilities implemented in standard linux kernels, such as arp requests or ICMP echo requests, are possible, they are far rarer than exploits of higher-level network services, such as HTTP or SSH. Consequently, a basic install of a distribution such as Gentoo, in which only those basic network services implemented in the kernel are active, would likely remain unexploited for years. Of course, this only shows that in the case of Linux, the `base install' does not provide for a very good test. (In practice, people are far more likely to use Microsoft Windows, or Linux distributions with a more expansive `base install' than Gentoo or Debian, in their base configurations.)
As another user commented, server software can benefit greatly from a large variety of optimizations, since better performance translates directly into supporting more users on fewer/cheaper servers.
Optimizations also have significant effect in software designed to perform complex computations, such as scheduling.
Also, the trend of ignoring performance considerations with the claim that modern hardware makes optimizations obselete is precisely what leads to the trend, particularly among Microsoft software, for the software to become significantly slower with each revision.