New Study Says Open Source Less Secure
from the how-much-FUD-have-you-had-lately? dept
And the debate rages onward… I’m sure the folks over at Slashdot will have their own field day with this one, but I figured it was worth posting here as well. The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, a “think tank”, is coming out with a report saying that open source software is less secure than proprietary software. Of course, history seems to suggest otherwise, but why let things like actual facts get in your way. It’s easy enough to see how you can make arguments either way. The open source crowd points out that more people look at and play with the code, and thus are more likely to quickly find (and plug) security holes. The proprietary supporters say that since hackers can’t see the code, it’s tougher for them to find the holes. Both points make sense initially. However, it’s pretty clear that most hackers don’t have much difficulty figuring out the holes in proprietary software, anyway. So, that argument pretty much goes away. How long until we find out how much money Microsoft donated to this think tank?
Comments on “New Study Says Open Source Less Secure”
Microsoft Sponsored Survey?
I think studies like this should have, in big bold letters, “This study brought to you by the nice folks at Microsoft.”
Pure rubbish.
Re: Microsoft Sponsored Survey?
If this white paper was published on a slash site it would be modded down to flamebait. I, of course, rose to the bait on my own site but regardless… If you dig into the “Institute” site a little more you’ll find a number of press releases about their announcement that MSCE is the best thing since sliced bread. They’re rabid free marketeers and it shows.
We’ll all read it but hopefully more as something a little funny and representative of the myriad forms that FUD takes.
yes...
Let’s not be paranoide here, MS couldn’t be behind this… just no way. /sarcasm