On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 13:05:10 -0700 (PDT), [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > how come 44 % of the people think linux would  be more insecure if it
> > were more popular???
> 
> more popular == more users
> more users == more eyes
> more eyes == more bad people
> more bad people == more malware/exploits/worms/viruses
> 
> Same with any other operating system

so we can quantify this as a ratio of exploits/users: e/u 
if at time t(now) e/u(windows) < e/u(linux) 
then still means vastly more exploits on windows
but,
if at t(now) e/u(windows) >= e/u(linux) 
then
at t(future) linux will still be less vulnerable than windows even if
u(linux)=u(windows)

so this is not the answer you wanted to hear; even if windows were much more 
"secure" than linux it would still have more vulnerabilities.

but this is all moot since there is no such thing as a a standard
installation of either windows or linux, and most exploit counts mix
application and core operating system exploits together.

a strictly controlled scientific trial of different os's under
different conditions won't tell us much about the real world
implications. and just saying that more users = more exploits ignores
the differences in underlying architecture that should make a
difference.

So what are fair tests of security?
-- 
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