Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 at 14:59, Jason Ball <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Not wishing to start an OS war, but I rarely if ever have seen a BSD
or Sun box compromised. Is this due to sheer numbers of Linux and
Doze?
More than likely.
I've seen a range of plausible reasons and hard statistics to back up Linux
supporters' assertions that the frequency of compromises on Windows systems
is due to far more than just its sheer install base.
I'd hate to see Linux users start to solely use the 'market share' argument
against other, less used, operating systems.
As pointed out previously, one contributing factor to x86 Windows
and Linux architectures being popular targets is that there is
significant payback in writing attack software for platforms that
are ubiquitous. The rarer the system, the less likely there is
blackhat experience to crack it.
Market share is a factor. But as we all know, a house of cards
built of shakey foundations is another factor.
BSD and Sun zealots do claim that their software systems are much
more robust/stable than Linux and Windows. I cannot respond to
that claim.
Regarding your sig:
Your toaster doesn't crash. Your television doesn't crash.
Why should your computer? http://www.linux.org.au/linux
The answer should be obvious. A dedicated computer running an
appliance runs heavily tested software dedicated to one purpose
and a well-known hardware set.
A general purpose computer running any variety of software you
install along with a conglomerate of possibly never before tried
hardware suffers the combinatorial explosion of interactions and
complexity that a toaster never experiences.
The devil is in the detail of general-purpose vs purpose-built.
cheers
rick
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The user's going to pick dancing pigs over security every time.
-- Bruce Schneier
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