On 13 June 2012 13:33, Andrew Sullivan <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 07:55:37AM -0400, Rich Kulawiec wrote: > > > If popularity were the measure of relative OS security, then we would > > expect to see infection rates proportional to deployment rates > > I don't buy that premise, or at least not without reservation. The OS > market happens to be a superstar economy. On desktops and laptops, > which still happen to be the majority of devices, the overwhelming > winner is Windows. Therefore, if you are going to invest in any > product for which you want ubiquitous deployment, Windows is the first > platform you aim for. You only aim for the others if you're chasing a > niche. >
I note also that many so-called operating system vulnerabilities are actually flaws in third-party subsystems like Flash or Java. Unix has traditionally had a better isolation model than Windows and so exploits via these attack vectors would be able to infiltrate the Windows core operating system whereas on Linux or OS-X platforms, the attacks might technically be more limited in their impact - not that this would be much consolation to the end user. Aled
