[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > 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 more eyes == more people available to fix open source
> >> > >> Same with any other operating system except for closed source. > > > > (insert brainy formulae stuff that doesn't really pertain to the point, here) > > > > > 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. > > It's an answer that doesn't really pertain to what I was speaking of. The > question was "how come 44 % of the people think linux would be more > insecure if it were more popular". This is true by common sense. If Linux > were more popular, it would have more vulnerabilities found, and thus be > more "insecure". This is only true by common sense if you leave out the 2 points I mentioned above. The whole vulnerabilities issue is not static. With more eyes looking at it, it becomes just as if not more likely that good eyes will find and fix a vulnerability before the bad eyes can get to it. > > Mac OS X is an excellent case model for this. Once the number of users > kicked up, (Mac OS X software specific) vulnerabilities were found more > and more frequently. > > One could easily argue that paragraph #1 is even more true for open source > software, where the source code is publicly available for auditing. Which > is/can be easier to audit than a debugger and binary code. I've done a bit > of grepping for strcpy in my time. Still, I'd much rather go the open > source route, personally. With open source, I KNOW within my abilities, > whether a piece of software is reasonably secure or not. > > _______________________________________________ > EUGLUG mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug > > -- Bob Crandell, CLS, CNS Assured Computing, Inc. When you need to be sure. http://www.assuredcomp.com/ P.O. Box 40814 Eugene, OR 97404 Voice - 541-868-0331 FAX - 541-463-1627 _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
