Veteran programmers have brought lifetimes of experience to Linux"s development, including an awareness of the "gotchas" of OS security, says Paula Hunter, OSDL business-development director. "There are people who are working on [Linux] projects that probably have children that work at Microsoft."
In a recent speech in defense of Windows security, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said it would be dangerous to conclude that other operating systems are safer simply because they are not attacked as much. In making that point, Gates gave voice to a commonly held opinion in the software industry. Other OSes -- most pointedly Linux, now the chief competitor to Windows -- may be less safe than the beleaguered Windows OS. Perhaps quite a bit less safe. In other words, these Windows proponents suggest, if you think Linux is safe, think again: The worst is yet to come. If the open-source OS were to gain additional market share, it would become a bigger target and fall under attack much like Windows does, possibly leading to a hellacious contagion of worms, viruses and security red alerts.