Students uncover dozens of Unix software flaws

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Is Unix still safer than ... ? YES!

Although perhaps not for the reasons some might expect. Unix was 'born' in 1969 -- 35 years ago! For that reason alone, it is mature and stable. It is rock-solid. So is Linux, which is, after all, a Unix CLONE. Thus, the flaws that do continue to crop up are subtle and harder to exploit.

By comparison, Windows NT was first released in 1993 -- just eleven years ago. (Earlier versions of windows offered no true multi-user, multi-tasking capabilities and cannot be reasonably counted.)

The other reason Unix is 'safer' is that, in order to continue to grow market share during the transition to newer version of Windows, Microsoft 'saddled itself' with a very high standard for backward compatibility (without requiring the re-compiling of code.) Unix never set such a high standard of compatibility. It didn't need to because re-compilation of source code is straightforward (though sometimes complex) in a typical Unix environment.

Coupled with less stringent programming requirements placed on ISVs, this gave Windows a leg-up in the emerging personal computer market -- although at a price that is now beginning to catch up with Microsoft.

IMO, the third reason why Unix/Linux environments are 'safer' is that there are fewer *nix- knowledgeable hackers out there than there are hackers with knowledge of the inner workings of Windows.

Posted by: mwagner@...   Posted on: 12/16/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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