Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Linux is actually very vulnerable to exploits and it's showing with high value vulnerabilities that has been dropping in the latest years; FreeBSD is way better in security record (piefed.world)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by beep@piefed.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/uncommon/p/1089778/linux-is-actually-very-vulnerable-to-exploits-and-it-s-showing-with-high-value-vulnerabi

I hate when people keep repeating the myth that Linux is more secure than X OS without any understanding of how much Linux gets exploited.

On the other hand, FreeBSD rarely suffers from wide security issues.

Overall, I don't think anyone should repeat the myth that Linux is secure.

And at least if they gonna recommend Linux, they better recommend a good distro with SeLinux, hardened kernel and hardened OS.

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[–] beep@piefed.world 1 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

https://www.cvedetails.com/top-50-products.php?year=0

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 7 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Thanks for the link! But I'm afraid it doesn't tell me much. a) FreeBSD isn't even on the list, so I don't know the numbers to compare it to. and b) there's things like survivorship bias. You have to do statistics the proper way around. For all we know by those numbers, Linux could be the best battle-tested OS in the world. I mean they fixed 3 times as many vulnerabilities as Microsoft did for any of their products?!

[–] MissesAutumnRains@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 20 hours ago

Interesting that this chart separates the SKUs on the Windows NT kernel but lumps all the Linux kernel stuff together. I have to imagine that this isn't intentional and it's just an artifact of how they collect data.

This seems like a better resource for tracking a specific product over time than comparing between them. It's also worth mentioning, as the other person pointed out, that the Linux kernel is the most audited codebase of all time, so that likely also plays into this a bit.