Microsoft Claims Vista Is Top Dog – Mac OS X, Ubuntu and Red Hat Linux – No Match

[soumya]

When it comes down to security vulnerabilities, volume is synonymous with increased risk for the end users. Microsoft has played the vulnerability counting game featuring its own operating system, as well as main rivals throughout 2007, ever since Vista has hit the shelves. Now, as Vista is approaching its first year of general consumer availability on the market, and has already passed the first 12 months, considering the release to manufacturing and the business launch in November 2006, Jeff Jones, Security Strategy Director in Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group, has compared the latest Windows client with Mac OS X, Ubuntu and Red Hat Linux.

Jones stressed that the "Windows Vista One Year Vulnerability Report" was nothing more than a vulnerability analysis, but stated that indeed, with "all other things being equal", a small volume of security flaws
made it easier for a software developer to mitigate risks. Jones looked at all the vulnerabilities that impacted Vista, Mac OS X, and the Ubuntu and Red Hat distributions of Linux, but just in their respective first year on the market.

For Windows Vista, "Microsoft released 17 Security Bulletins and corresponding patches in the first year affecting components of Windows Vista, grouped so that there were 9 days in the year when Windows Vista security updates were released," Jones stated. "Microsoft fixed a total of 36 vulnerabilities, encompassing 9 Patch Events (I refer to those 'days when at least one update is released' as a Patch Event), in Windows Vista during the first year."

In terms of rival platforms, Jones set its sight first off on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Workstation (rhel4ws). "When rhel4ws shipped on February 15, 2005, there were 129 vulnerabilities already publicly disclosed in shipping components prior to general availability. On ship day, Red Hat issued 27 security advisories to address 64 of them. During the first year of availability, Red Hat issued 183 security advisories/updates for rhel4ws. If limited to just Critical and Important issues, there were 88 released on 57 different days. During the first year of availability, Red Hat fixed a total of 493 vulnerabilities in rhel4ws," 214 of which were Critical, Jones stated.

According to Jones, by the end of the first year, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Workstation, meaning the Linux operating system and all the adjacent components, had gathered a total of 575 vulnerabilities. Of course that the number of vulnerabilities is dramatically reduced when it is taken into consideration only the reduced component set of rhel4ws. In this context, Red Hat resolved just 360 vulnerabilities with another 40 publicly disclosed flaws remaining unpatched.

"Ubuntu 6.06 LTS had 53 vulnerabilities already publicly disclosed prior to the June 1, 2006 availability date. During the first year, Ubuntu issued 181 security advisories for Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. In the patches, Ubuntu fixed 406 vulnerabilities affecting Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. 160 of those fixed were rated High severity in the NVD. At the end of the one year period, there were at least 55 publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in Ubuntu 6.06 LTS did not yet have a patch from Ubuntu. Adding that to the 406 fixed, we get a total of 461 vulnerabilities," Jones revealed.

But for the Ubuntu 6.06 LTS – reduced component set, the number of security flaws also drops. In the first year of availability, Canonical issued 80 security advisories designed to patch 224 vulnerabilities. Another 18 vulnerabilities in the Ubuntu distribution of Linux remained unpatched and survived into the operating system's second year.
"Apple shipped Mac OS X 10.4 on April 29, 2005. During the first year, Apple released 17 security updates affecting Mac OS X 10.4, each on a different day. Those updates fixed 116 vulnerabilities in shipping components of Mac OS X 10.4. At the end of the one year period, a total of 41 publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in the product did not yet have a patch from Apple, so the total vulnerabilities disclosed for the product including fixed and unfixed was 157 vulnerabilities," Jones said.

At this point, it is important to underline the fact that Jones does not claim that the sheer volume of vulnerabilities is an illustration of the security level of the respective operating system. Also, it is relevant to note that Jones no longer integrated Novel SUSE Linux in the comparison, although the Novel distro of Linux was part of past comparisons.

"If it was possible to measure 'security' in one metric, it would have to encompass a complex combination of factors including (but not limited to) the software quality, administrative controls, physical controls, and much more – and even then, it would all be in the context of whatever security policy was defined for the systems in question. So, this is not an analysis of 'the security'," Jones stated.

http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/...No-Match-3.jpg

http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/...No-Match-4.jpg

Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Micro...ch-77162.shtml

[shantanu]

cyrus : member banned... rules applies to all...

gaurav :banned for spamming and unnecessary posts in technology section

[The_Devil_Himself]

Originally Posted by iMav

sorry windows vista is better than the best and the rest

where best=os x and rest=gazillion distros of linux

thanks for your verdict mate but we got brains of our own to think and decide.so avoid these kind of comments if you can.

Microsoft Claims Vista Is Top Dog – Mac OS X, Ubuntu and Red Hat Linux – No Match

Lol,I have a dog which sh!ts everyday inside my house but whatever Its the best dog in the world cos its mine.

[Who]

Every OS has it uses , it also has its own unique weakness if it weren't true then , the rule of best would apply to humans then i would be the best of all of the humans but that isn't the truth so this isn't true too.

[cvvikram]

What is happening over here guys???? Why you people are fighting like this??

We have lost the good camaraderie environment in this forum nowadays.

[iMav]

Originally Posted by Help~Is~Here

I haven't seen any other MOD here having any issues other that this Mot***fu**er!

thats ur problem u aint aware of what happens behind the scenes

[Who]

Help~Is~Here@ i read the reasons , it were more than enough for a ban & about leaving the comment thing i think its more on topic but meh its true shantu likes MS, but tell me one thing how can you say he banned without any reasons , did you even know what happen, stop blamming people without reasons , know the whole story.

[Help~Is~Here]

^^ @smit, just because I didn't post in the thread earlier doesn't mean i never saw or read the thread, so I know what was happening, not just you. peace wid you. but not with that a$$

[Who]

^ Peace , i have no problem with you but if you read everything than you already know that calling a another member idiot, can lead to a ban , again no offense.

[Help~Is~Here]

Originally Posted by smit

^ Peace , i have no problem with you but if you read everything than you already know that calling a another member idiot, can lead to a ban , again no offense.

nothing was directed towards any member, heck now, what's the point to prove? he deleted those threads, cunning a$$h0le

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

Mate the Posts are not deleted , They remain in the Trash Bin of the Administrator , even though we members can't access them but the posts are there and the mods and admins can access them may the need be .

[shantanu]

yeah i can restore all of em.. and help~is~here , why did you got this much irritated.. huh.. ?? well no point talking to a guy like you.. i cannot wait for raaabo here... so banning you

the reason for your ban : i can't let mad dog roam around in the forum..

and if i like m$ and support the fanboys then why did i ban GX ??

[Faun]

^^lol...may be he read your siggy, the last word

[shantanu]

my siggy means that a psycho thinks like that , not me man, and i guess those members who would have read the entire thread will agree that my decisions were not wrong..

[ilugd]

i wonder if this post should be moved to fight club, huh? There are sparks flying around this thread.

[praka123]

I think this news is already posted.

this news is obviously seems biased towards vista.now just wait and see the same ppl revealing the truth when M$ stops vista by this yr end

[MetalheadGautham]

dude, guess I missed bansville here... Anyway, now that bansville has been opened, I will keep quite here and just say one simple thing : "Satyameva Jayate". "Truth Alone Triumphs". The truth may be anything, and I don't intend to create a flame war here, but Just remember that line when you post something .

[Kiran.dks]

Cool down guys.

[axxo]

i suppose all thread related to microsoft or linux or mac must be moved to fight club regardless of whether its a news or whatever.....peace

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by axxo

i suppose all thread related to microsoft or linux or mac must be moved to fight club regardless of whether its a news or whatever.....peace

Thats because OS wars often include personal stuff and lifestyle.
Any Geek worth his brain will agree that his OS is an extention of his personality.
And everyone likes to tell that they have the best personality.
So in simple words, OS discussions naturally tend to Flame Wars.

[axxo]

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

Thats because OS wars often include personal stuff and lifestyle.
Any Geek worth his brain will agree that his OS is an extention of his personality.
And everyone likes to tell that they have the best personality.
So in simple words, OS discussions naturally tend to Flame Wars.

it doesnt look like lifestyle and nothing but childish i wud say...

well i work on solaris environment & its serving job for me now..but i never develop opposite thoughts for win family and always use windows for entertainment...

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by axxo

it doesnt look like lifestyle and nothing but childish i wud say...

well i work on solaris environment & its serving job for me now..but i never develop opposite thoughts for win family and always use windows for entertainment...

I specifically said OS geeks. For some of us, we customise and personalize the OS so much, that it becomes a part of ourselves. Here, superiority complexes are bound to occur, we are only humans.

[mediator]

Well, I have read the whole little battle and "somehow" don't agree with @shantanu's decision.

People are free to post whateva they feel like, its upto mods to take care. Sometime back, there was this guy who endlessly abused @raabo by creatin different abusive ID's. People reported it, with logical reasons! Same should have been practiced here!

I don't support banning. But people shud take care that their speeches don't hurt others ( FIGHT CLUB being an exception ).

The action was too harsh, I guess. 2-3 years ago mods used to warn the member and then, may be, ban for a week. But this time it seems a few mods are trying to scare the members away ...... ruining the forum??

If being polite in other sections/being on topic are considered as rulezzz, then I guess why isn't Raaabo been banned yet, or his posts deleted/"thread cleaned", for deviating a UFO thread to a reputation thread?

http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/show...&postcount=194
http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/show...&postcount=196
http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/show...&postcount=198

hypocrisy?

My intent here is not to show how admins can themselves turn into law breakers, as u can see in here admins used to play with repos a lot while warning others not to pass on free repos, becoz of which the whole repo system was demolished an year ago.

I hope the concerned mods understand and be lenient in their actions! Well some of em make me remember a case in which a US teacher severely beat up a nursery child for not doing his homework!


WTH!

[iMav]

@mediator: fyi case in point gx banning the reason mehul was offened by an image gx posted all that image had was cat and text "drm; linux; oss" written on it and that resulted in gx's banning because it was felt that gx's post was provocative now cyrus here used language which was provocative and it was brought to the notice of the notice and the the same yard stick was used .... when i was banned i got no warning before that was banned and was said:

Originally Posted by raaabo

you looking to start arguements in forums other than fight club

now what cyrus was doing with his posts was no different his posts made use of words like ur an idiot why are posting inspite of the fac that soumya posted the entire article and the source which i might add is a legit source - softpedia .... now is posting a piece of news against the rules of the forums- he psoted the whole article with the source if some 1s got a problem take it up with the author/mods/admins of the forum calling posters idiots and tehn leaving a ps saying i didnt mean it to any1 in person

and the rep system welll we all know it resulted in more misuse than use

y isnt raaabo banned yet ... in the words of danny crane - name on the door

[shantanu]

i guess cyrus is only banned for a week .. who said permanent ??
help~is~here is banned permanently.. rest 7 days.. and for him also i have forwarded the request to the admins , they will decide, i stopped the flames thats all..

and medaitor you haven't read anything , i deleted over 50 posts.. i dont know from where HIH came in this thread, the thing was going on with cryus, and others.. this was the first post HIH posted.

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by shantanu

i guess cyrus is only banned for a week .. who said permanent ??
help~is~here is banned permanently.. rest 7 days.. and for him also i have forwarded the request to the admins , they will decide, i stopped the flames thats all..

Well, Bans are fine, but we still need to address the root cause of the problem.
How can you stop guys from starting flame wars ?
Threads comparing OSes are bound to lead to Flame Wars.
I am surprised that this forum lacks Graphic Card and Processor Flame Wars.
Though the above is no reason to feel unhappy.(its a good thing).
You just need to deal with flame wars and learn to ignore them, thats all.

[Charan]

flamewars are ok till everyone sticks to the topic.. when it gets personal .. action must be taken. one cannot go on and use abusive language at another member.

[mediator]

@mediator: fyi case in point gx banning the reason mehul was offened by an image gx posted all that image had was cat and text "drm; linux; oss" written on it and that resulted in gx's banning because it was felt that gx's post was provocative now cyrus here used language which was provocative and it was brought to the notice of the notice and the the same yard stick was used .... when i was banned i got no warning before that was banned and was said:

The only thing that looked provocative to me in that was "fat cat"....a personal comment for no reason! But again I don't support his banning. He shud have been warned like in earlier days of this forum!

now what cyrus was doing with his posts was no different his posts made use of words like ur an idiot why are posting inspite of the fac that soumya posted the entire article and the source which i might add is a legit source - softpedia .... now is posting a piece of news against the rules of the forums- he psoted the whole article with the source if some 1s got a problem take it up with the author/mods/admins of the forum calling posters idiots and tehn leaving a ps saying i didnt mean it to any1 in person

Thats what I said, people shud not be offensive like that and one has the full freedon to post wateva it be. Its upto mods to take actions and members to report with logical backups! I don't support his act and I dont support the action taken on him!

i guess cyrus is only banned for a week .. who said permanent ??

Ah thats nice to know!

and medaitor you haven't read anything , i deleted over 50 posts.. i dont know from where HIH came in this thread, the thing was going on with cryus, and others.. this was the first post HIH posted.

Well, thats partly true! I haven't read @HIH's comments and I wasn't talking about him (I dunno abt his grudge againt u. May be he shud have approched the admins). But I did read @cyrus's posts and I was talking about what I read!

All I'm talkin about is some leniency. @Shantanu....AFAIR u used to nuke the people in FIGHt CLUB too earlier! That changed didn't it after @Raaabo said "something" to u? FIGHt CLUB is meant to handle the weight of sensitive and provocative posts! Don't mind, but I feel u should ask mehul, @GNURAG etc how it used to be earlier! It was quite enjoyable too.

Neways, this is not a debate zone. I just posted what I felt. people are mature enough to understand what is korrect! If one still feels debating over it, then move it to FIGHT CLUB!

[Kniwor]

I see you guys managed to turn this thread into a lot of mess, I don't see anymore tech discussion possible in this thread, or any contribution to the forum. So I will just allow all of you to shut up now.


As far as the BAN on certain members is concerned, the members are banned only temporarily to make them behave in a more responsible manner, this is a big forum with many members, and it is not possible to go through, read and moderate each and every single thread/post on the forums. We need members to behave more responsibly. The mods/admins here try their best to keep the forum clean and well ordered, and in the course of that, some members might find some decisions unfair/wrong, but it it what must be done for the good of the community and no explanation regarding the same is mandatory on the moderators/administrators behalf.