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By Design News Staff -- Design News, October 25, 2004
Unjust Comparison
Regarding the Rant column by Dan O'Dowd, "No Defense For Linux" (DN 07.13.04), when you speak of Linux having more weaknesses and exploits than Windows at any time, would it not be nice if you wrote that you compare the core-Windows stuff (IE, IIS, Outlook and other Microsoft products) to ALL software available for Linux written by anyone at any time? Is this not the case? It is a very unjust comparison to make unless you, when looking at Microsoft, you also include all software of any type and from any third party. But all things aside, no system is perfect and safe unless handled by a competent administrator or staff. All systems need to be guarded, secured, and regularly updated to be as safe as possible.
Mattias Ahnberg, Sweden
Open Source More Reliable
How about we turn the Linux argument upside down. If the government accepts and runs binary only software without source, that is blindly taking in the true Trojan Horse. Regardless of "certification", it's common for software programmers to know how to write code to meet certification, but include other non-documented features as well. How could the government ever know these blind-source products don't contain compromising code and backdoors? Such closed packages could be piping secrets out of our government, or misleading information into it, on a daily, hourly, or by-minute basis. Why should taxpayers put up with even the possibility of this situation? With Linux, the government has the option of running NSA's tightened-up version of Linux. Surely, being able to leverage and build upon the OS that runs two-thirds of today's Internet servers with a high degree of reliability, stability, security, and functionality is a tremendous advantage. Enjoying access to a large community of knowledgeable programmers and administration staff and having thousands of decent application choices also come with using this open source platform. Expecting the government to prop up limited, option-reducing, closed-source solutions is a monumental waste of our tax dollars. The self-interest of this author has been pointed out by many posters. Losing to open source must be painful to his company. However, his company could use this opportunity to transform in to a high service Linux provider instead of dealing with old fashioned, out-of-date, closed source products.
S. Armstrong, Design News reader
O'Dowd Responds: My rant against using Linux in defense systems created a storm of angry letters to the editor objecting to the publication of my point of view. I have found that people who rail against the publication of opposing points of view fear that their positions can't stand up to scrutiny. Public debate is the means by which people learn of the new ideas that displace outmoded conventional wisdom. Every security expert knows that security must be designed into an operating system from the start. Linux was not originally designed for security. Linux was originally designed for a single-user computer for Linus Torvald's personal use. Linux's security flaws are so pervasive that no amount of testing, removal of unnecessary features, or "hardening" will ever raise Linux security to the level required by national security applications. Of course I am biased in favor of the operating system that I designed, INTEGRITY. But those who promote Linux for defense applications are also biased. The difference is that I understand Linux and its myriad security faults. The Linux supporters know little or nothing about INTEGRITY, or how it provides absolute security. A full analysis of the Linux security controversy can't be covered in a 1,000-word article, so I have written a series of white papers that systematically address the arguments put forward by those who promote Linux for defense applications. The white papers are available at www.ghs.com. (O'Dowd is CEO of Green Hills Software Inc., which competes with Linux.)
Cheaper, Easier, and Fixable
The current Windows OS is the most bug-prone software that I ever seen. Even if you can download the latest Service Pack, if you using dail-up it will take a long time to download. The Linux OS is 1) cheaper; 2) easier to get; and 3) if there's a new software flaw, just download the latest program within Linux.
Daryn Smith, Kempner, TX
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