Which is secure?...Windows or Linux

hi to all...

just a survey on the two systems...hope you could shed some light on my curious mind....


by the way i have used Windows for years now and planning on making use of Linux on our network as a proxy and a firewall as well...in terms of securing the netwok...how would you assess Windows and Linux?


thank you very much...

Me too

I penetration-test for a living, and have had the dubious pleasure of repeatedly compromising both operating systems..

heres my take on things :

Microsoft -- Horribly buggy
Linux -- Much more secure, harder to secure

Heres the thing.. most Microsoft admins have been with Windows for a long time, so they know the basic precautions to take.. however they cant lock it down, because there are always so many new vulnerabilties. Maybe they make less misconfigurations errors (yeah right in a perfect world)..

Linux.. is harder to lock down.. but 1000 times more secure.. you'll find newbie admins wo will put up a redhat box thinking 'oh i must use linux because its so secure'.. this makes no difference if you're going to leave it running 14050 services in their default configurations... in other words, more often its misconfigurations on the part of the admin.

Tomorrow if you tell me if I had to be in the middle of an electronic war.. there is no way you'd catch me sitting on a Windows box.. nobody -- Microsoft included -- really knows how that o/s works.. its just big, and bloated.

Yes I am a Linux fanatic.. I used to despise Linux because of its learning curve. After I got past that, you fall madly in love with it and will never look back.


There is no point asking which is more secure -- everyone knows that its Linux.. the question is.. how well can you administer your Linux box to make sure its secure.

Think MAC!

Think ENIAC

Ever tried to do a buffer overflow using punch cards ?

You gotta point!