[kwlug-disc] given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow?

[Lori Paniak]

On Sat, 2010-01-09 at 10:08 -0500, john at netdirect.ca wrote:
> -----kwlug-disc-bounces at kwlug.org wrote: -----
> 
> >From: unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca>
> >
> >I get irritated when it is claimed Linux is more secure than Windows 
> >because it doesn't get viruses. When we cannot possibly know that.
> >
> >Particularly when the reality is, if Linux were as popular as
> >Windows, 
> >it would be a much greater target than it is today, and get a 
> >correspondingly larger level of viruses (which are essentially bugs /
> >security holes).
> 
> Compare it to neighbourhoods. Despite houses being generally alike in
> how they can be broken into, would you rather live in a neighbourhood
> that has a high rate of break-ins or lower rate?
> 
> I pick Linux. It has a lower rate of break-ins and I don't have to do
> very much to keep it that way.
> 
If "more eyeballs..." is not exactly true, then the "Windows has more
security problems because it is more popular" line is pure BS.

Windows has more security problems because it has a poor/non-existent
security policy that allows any Tom, Dick or Harriet process root
privilege.  

If security problems scaled with adoption, then Mac users should be
running for their anti-virus distributors.  Surely Apple is ripe target
for hackers.  In reality, Mac users happily compute without A/V software
degrading the performance of their systems.  Why is that?  It is because
OSX is firmly rooted in BSD which, like Linux, is designed for secure
multi-user environments from day one. From a security standpoint, it is
a demonstrably better operating system than any of the Windows.

I do not understand why people put up with a product as defective as
Windows - a product so defective that it implores you to go and buy
anti-virus software as soon as you start it.  It is like buying a new
car and when you start it you get a warning light that directs you to
the repair shop immediately.  Car buyers would consider that a lemon.
In computer-land, MS has made it the happy norm.  This is where Linux
and BSD are clearly superior in ways that the typical user (and their
wallets) can understand and appreciate.
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