My statement was clearly an assertion. While a lower install base
(OSX/BSD only) is not the sole reason for fewer hacks, the difference
has some impact.
The main point of my initial response was to say that the article
didn't prove anything concrete. The methods used were not thorough
enough by any means to draw the conclusion they did.
Carvel
On Nov 12, 2004, at 5:16 PM, Pike, Michael wrote:
I totally disagree - I often hear this response from Microsoft
advocates any
time a security hole arises in Windows (whoa, there is another one!
And
another! :)
Last time I checked on the internet, *nix based servers out number
Windows
based servers by quite a large margin.
But lets look at the "heart" (kernel) of the matter.
*nix kernels (OS X, FreeBSD, etc) are open source, and reviewed by
millions
of developers. Microsoft's kernel is not.
If you have a corn field that is 600 acres, and you have to find every
ladybug in that field with 3 spots (bugs), and you have 1 million
people
looking at it, you will find a significantly larger number of bugs than
someone who has a team of 100 people looking for them.
I believe the low number of "hacks" related to *nix OS's is due to the
fact
that problems are found and fixed BEFORE they become a problem, as
opposed
to the Microsoft platform which are patched AFTER someone gets hit.
No OS is totally secure - but the trend you will see is clear - you
get an
Apple Security Update fixing the problem before anyone even knew it
was a
problem - as opposed to Microsoft - where you come in and find the
latest
version of MyDoom has trashed your system.
Even if the number of OS X and Microsoft based installations were
equal (I
believe it's possible, I'm working for that), you would still see a
significantly smaller number of "hacks" for the OS X platform for the
mere
fact that problems are discovered and fixed before they were ever
realized
to be a problem.
Mike
On 11/10/04 12:18 PM, "R. Carvel Baus" <email@hidden> wrote:
When there is a larger install base of Mac OS
X clients and servers, it is most likely that the number of successful
hacks on the system will go up. Consider if the positions of Windows
and Mac OS were swapped, historically. Based on this articles logic,
it
would find Windows as the most secure system (many assumptions are
made
in such a statement.)
So while there may be fewer successful hacks of a Mac OS / BSD system,
I would think it is more likely due to the lack of install base.
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