Linux: Viva le différence!

Subject: Linux: Viva le différence!
From: Decker Wong-Godfrey <dfgodfrey -at- milmanco -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 00:21:59 -0700



Whoa there, partner. Andrew, you may know a lot about some things, but when it comes to Linux, your thin-spot is showing.


Windows is a good 10 or
more years ahead of Linux in its application programming interfaces.

What Linux suffers in APIs is a lack of cohesive organization and the excellent references and tools that Microsoft has. But we all have our opinions about what makes one platform better than another to program.

But try this on:
Right now, a group of developers (professional developers as well as volunteers) is reverse-engineering the Windows APIs (http://www.codeweavers.com http://www.winehq.com). Already, they've made enough progress to run hundreds of Windows applications on Linux (no porting--just click "Install"). I wouldn't use it for production, but I've installed and run FrameMaker, Photoshop, Pagemaker, Acrobat, as well as many others on it. They've come a long way in the last year, and if Microsoft actually does release some USEFUL APIs (under the terms of their proposed settlement with the DOJ), that "10 or more years" will be gone in a matter of months. That means A LOT of stuff would run on Linux--everything that would run on Windows as well as the myriad of applications available for Linux natively.

99% of open source users never contribute a single thing to
the product.

You're right, most people just now turning to Linux don't have the time, the skills or the desire to contribute anything back to the projects directly. No one expects or wants them to. What they do give back to the project is money, is that magical "market share" that makes Linux a more palatable choice for the rest of the herd. It works just like Microsoft's blind-eye to piracy did in the '90s. More market share means more interest, means more developers, means more software, means more sales, means more interest, means more developers... (lather, rinse, repeat).

RedHat Linux is merely a
commercial OS **based**on the Linux kernel.

No, Red Hat is a commercial Linux distribution utilizing the Linux kernel. The Red Hat distribution contains a lot of value-added software, and is compiled into a single easy-to-install package--just like every other Linux distribution is. Although they don't need to, Red Hat provides source for tools it has created under the GNU General Public license. This means that they provide source-code for these tools to anyone who wants it. They don't have to, but they do (come on, group-hug everyone).

one of the gravest pieces of misinformation is the notion that
open-source products are inherently more secure than Windows products.

Oh come on. Microsoft's Vice President in charge of product development has stated that Windows products are not engineered for security (http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/09/05/ 020905hnmssecure.xml).

Unix and Linux, on the other hand, were built for a multi-user environment where security had to be integrated into the heart of the design. Of course there are always security vulnerabilities when a networked computer runs code; even the hallowed Palladium won't be a panacea for security vulnerabilities. (How smart, overcome bad programming with overzealous limitations; Palladium reminds me of one of those High-Modern high rise apartments built during the late '60s and destroyed in the early '80s because no one wanted to live in them.)

Nonsense, there are MORE installations of Windows
then RedHat, hence the pure law of probability is at work that more bugs would be
found. In that sense, its more likely a bug will get found and fixed in Windows
because there are more Windows systems out there to detect those bugs.

If this were true, Microsoft wouldn't need the swarms of testers it employs. End users don't report bugs. Even if they were to try to, how many end users would be able to give a good bug report? I mean, how many times has Word or your beloved Visio crashed on you? Did you call up Microsoft, or fire-off an e-mail telling them what happened, what you were doing when it happened, what other applications were open, what software updates you have installed, what the error code was?

There is no
financial incentive to patch Linux machines quickly.

I can't really tell what you mean; I don't know about you, but when my job is on the line, I call that financial incentive. When I have customers' data on my machine, I call that financial incentive. I mean really, what other kind of financial incentive do you think a MCSE has to patch a NT installation quickly?

If you're talking about commercial Linux vendors providing patches, you couldn't be further from the truth. In the Linux world, there is actually competition. This means vendors bust their humps to make customers happy. They know if they don't provide you with timely patches, you can find another vendor who will.

Moreover there is no central
mechanism to obtain the latest patches.

Balderdash!

If by "central mechanism" you mean a single, easy to use interface for all updates, patches, bug-fixes and the like, you're wrong. Any commercial Linux distribution worth its salt provides an update tool for services and applications on the computer. If yours doesn't your vendor is at least far behind other vendors and is probably ready to go out of business--take your choice from the other vendors available (competition... how strange).


As an example, here's how you can obtain the latest software patches with Red Hat Linux:

1. From the desktop, select to the Menu Button
2. Select Programs -> System -> Update Agent
or
1. From the shell prompt, type "up2date"

Moreover, what platform do you think most (good) hackers use? Windows? No, they
use Linux or BSD. Most (good) hackers have no idea how the inner-workings of
Windows servers work. But they know Linux up down and sideways. Which means they
are many times more likely to be able to find new holes in Linux than Windows.

Ah, the old "Security Through Obscurity" argument. As the almost-weekly buffer-overflow exploits show, the idea that any Microsoft software is more secure because people don't have access to the source-code is complete nonsense. It is the very fact that source code is available that makes Open Source programmers work harder to avoid simple, sloppy mistakes that make Microsoft brand exploits possible.

If your argument is true, then how can a project like OpenBSD go for years without a remote exploit, if (good) hackers had access to every line of code in the OS? If your argument is true, how can Microsoft operating systems be compromised via remote exploits so often?

Sure, an OS is an OS is an OS. You can say they're all basically the same--just like all cars, airplane seats, or houses are all basically the same. But when Microsoft Millionaire slams his Hummer into your Yugo, tell me they're all basically the same. When you're 20,000 feet over topeka sitting between that sleeping lady with her clawing-at-your-face, screaming-in-your-ear, putting-feet-in-your-food two year old, and the 300 pound guy who had to wedge himself into the aisle seat between you and the bathroom, tell me that they're all basically the same. When you find your foundation is leaking water into your freshly-remodeled basement, tell me they're all basically the same.




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References:
Viva le Same! Linux: From: Andrew Plato

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