Is Linux the most secure OS?
Linux-based systems get a lot of press in IT trade publications. A lot of that press relates to its security characteristics. In fact, some claim “Linux is the most secure operating system (OS) of them all.” Such statements are, of course, unsupportable hyperbole; while many Linux distributions may outshine both MS Windows and Apple MacOS X by a significant margin, there’s evidence to suggest that most Linux distributions are not up to the standards of FreeBSD, for instance — let alone OpenBSD, with possibly the best security record of any general-purpose operating system.
That’s even leaving out special-purpose OSes such as a number of RTOSes, IBM i, OpenVMS, and TrustedBSD. In the sense that many people tend to think first, foremost, and often only of Linux-based systems when they think of open source OSes (and even think of “Linux” as an OS without distinguishing between distributions), however, they have a point: all else being equal, a popular open source OS has definite security advantages over a popular closed source counterpart. Linux distributions are far from the only open source operating systems, though. Just for the sake of argument, insofar as Linux is emblematic of open source OSes, then, and that MS Windows is emblematic of closed source OSes, it may not be so unrealistic to say “Linux is the most secure OS of them all,” where “them all” consists of only two choices — but the world is not that simple.
“Linux” in the abstract, however — as a stand-in for the average Linux distribution — is simply not the most secure OS available by a more comprehensive view of OSes.
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