The myth of the thousand updates for Linux, debunked
For the last six months, I’ve been reading article after article spewing the same bovine manure: Look at how many updates Distribution X issued! How can it be more secure than Windows? Let’s bury that stupidity under a ton of facts:
“Look at the pace of the update releases!”
Microsoft shills’ latest tune goes something like this: “but Linux is so much more insecure than Windows — just look, every day you see security updates released!”.
True: open up your Linux distribution’s update manager after three months of not upgrading, and you will see quite the list. Probably a bit more than your Windows or Mac OS X updates.
But only a minority are security updates. From that minority, only a handful apply to your scenario. And even so, the number of updates is of no consequence. As a matter of fact, you should be happy you have all these updates for you to install.
Don’t just take my word for it — let’s explore why.
Linux updates: much more modular
When you update your Linux system, you’re not just updating the operating system, but system services, libraries, applications and artwork as well. In a modern Linux distribution, you can expect about a thousand quarter-of-a-megabyte discrete applications (packages), instead of ten monolithic applications.
So it’s not the number of the updates that amazes, but the fact that the system is so modular (and yet hangs together so well) that updating it will trivially fast and easy. Just push Update.
And the icing on the cake? You don’t even need to think about it. On all modern distributions, it’s all handled for you.
Not all bug updates are equally relevant
Repeat after me: Not all bugs are equally relevant:
- Some applications have issued updates because there was a non-security-related bug.
- Some security issues are zero-risk in your scenario (which is in all likelihood a desktop scenario).
If you don’t run a DNS server, you don’t need to fret about the availability of an update for the DNS server. If you don’t run OpenOffice.org, you can rest at night every time an update for OpenOffice.org is released. And if you don’t know whether you run these examples, you can exhale and sleep tight because, in all likelihood, you ain’t running them.
Secure by default
On modern distributions, all network services are secured by default. This usually means:
- If they’re add-on services, they don’t start unless explicitly installed and activated.
- If they’re required for everyday system operation, they don’t listen to network requests.
It doesn’t take a genius to understand that, if your computer is ignoring malicious network activity, your attackers don’t stand a chance.
Not all updates are for security issues
In fact, those comprise a minority. Most updates are for new revisions of your applications — hundreds of bugs squashed, and (most juicy) new, useful features!
Keep reading. We’ll see what other benefits modern Linux has for you in the applications and update management department.
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October 23rd, 2007 at 0:21
Nice distro-neutral explanation of the benefits of a Linux package handler. I think the Microsoft boys are beginning to wither under our escalating broad-front attacks. I’ve noticed their return fire is becoming more and more defensive. This is odd when you consider that they hold the high ground with “95%” of the desktops. They sound worried. I would be worried too if I were them, Vista was supposed to be the “Great White Hope”. Instead it’s turned out to be an embarrassment.
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:30
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October 24th, 2007 at 2:59
This article is very true. It is amazing how I try to explain this to some Windows users and they are completely blown away by the idea that all applications are updated and it is all available for free. The issue is not that Linux is less superior to Microsoft Windows, it is that the mindset has been to purchase software at a store on a disk and put it in your CD-Rom. I tried to explain the Linux way to my sister and she just couldn’t believe that so much software was available for free. This just goes to show how much *nix was designed to be on a network. Some people just choose to live in ignorance. The only reason I would want more Linux users is to gain the respect from hardware vendors and therefore better hardware support.