basically what it comes down to is mistakes.
both the linux and microsoft camp have good programmers (microsoft probbly
better as they actually have to get paid for it and sacked if they arent
good enough) but since its people putting it in mistakes will be made,
oversights, lazyness and all maner of other things. Yhe linux community
however has all their source code publicly availablle, so that if sombody
has made a mistake some other interested person who may just be browsing
through it would go "hey now thats odd" fix it and send it in to be
integrated. linux is also as a rule much quicker at resolving exploits and
problems that have been found, 24 hours is a long time for a security flaw
to be found and not yet resolved. Microsoft have been up around the months
level for some instances in the past, though they are much better now.

generally the opperating system is what people refer to when talking of
security, user level applications have only certain rights which the OS
gives to them. User level apps shouldnt be able to crash the OS or alter
anything in the system that could prevent it opperating normally. linux is
very good at this.

personally I use windows. its just easier.

-----Original Message-----
From: pic microcontroller discussion list
[mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Ken Pergola
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 9:59 AM
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: [OT:] Windows/Linux security


I was hoping someone could educate me on something that I see and hear a lot
of comments about. I hear a lot of claims that Linux is more secure than
Windows, but I don't usually see people elaborate on why this claim is made
after they make it.

Isn't C++ the underlying language that both operating systems are written
in?

And if so, wouldn't both operating systems be *equal* in their
susceptibility to buffer overrun attacks, for example, due to the pitfalls
of C-string functions like 'strcpy', 'strcat' in C++?

Perhaps this is narrowing things down to such a simplistic and specific
example, but I feel it is a fair question to ask. Thank you for sharing any
comments on this.

Best regards,

Ken Pergola

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