Recall the dawn of Open Source and the fantastic safety and security that were inherent in Linux.  At least, that’s what open-source proponents were telling us on every web page they authored.  So what happened to the unbreakable free operating system?

Simple.  People started using it.  Open Source software advocates have made many ridiculous claims over the years, but an inherent immunity to virus and spyware was perhaps the most outlandish of them all.  Yet even today many Linux advocates will have you believe that Windows is dangerously insecure while Linux provides you with the security of a warm blanket.

Hogwash.

As I’ve said before, one software bug is just as dangerous as 20.  Evaluating software based on the number of bugs that have been discovered is as pointless as choosing a city based on the number of traffic tickets administered.  For those of you confused, let me explain.  All software has bugs, just as all cities have speeders.  Some perhaps have more, and some less.  However, the harder the debuggers work the more bugs they discover and fix.  Just as the police must work harder to write more tickets.  The number of bugs discovered, or tickets issued, tell us nothing about the total number of bugs or speeders present.  Those figures also tell us nothing of how hard programmers and police are working, or what types of resources they have available.

No operating system is secure, and a hacker can exploit just one hole more easily than they can exploit 10.  Is it going to make a difference how many exploits a hacker took advantage of to obtain a copy of your identity?  Of course not.  So nobody should care how many bugs are discovered, just that they are being actively pursued and fixed. 

So, as the Free Software Foundation and GPL were fundamentally meant to challenge capitalism in the software industry, the inherent flaws and insecurity in open source software are now providing fuel for the capitalistic antivirus software market.  Just ask Kaspersky. 

W.S.