Dell: Ubuntu Safer than Windows
Is Canonical's Ubuntu operating system safer than Windows 7?
Although Dell has shipped millions of PCs running Windows-based operating systems, the company is apparently well-aware of the security issues surrounding the Microsoft OS. In fact, while currently promoting its products that use Canonical's Ubuntu operating system, Dell is boldly claiming that the Linux-based solution is actually more secure.
"Ubuntu is safer than Microsoft Windows," Dell said (additional pdf) in its list of top ten things users should know about Ubuntu. "The vast majority of viruses and spyware written by hackers are not designed to target and attack Linux."
While Dell does have a point, it did not provide any additional details. Instead, Dell backed its claim by saying that Linux has been around for almost twenty years. Not only is it stable and reliable, but it's also pervasive.
"Linux is used on computers of all sizes ranging from the biggest to the smallest," Dell said. "If you’re the kind of person who likes your computer to simply work, Ubuntu is right for you. It’s based on stable, secure, easy-to-use software that’s been around for a long time."
Dell has shipped Ubuntu-based rigs since 2007, and even claims that it's sold more than any other computer maker in the world. Currently Microsoft has not issued a retaliation, however we're betting that a few execs will get their feathers ruffled and force Dell to remove the comments.
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k but dell has idiots for a consumer base so...
I'd say this is not only old news, but is a 'who cares' anyway.
Windows 7 is great as far as I can see, and I've even paid hundreds of pounds to do Linux courses, and I'm still left with the feeling it is difficult-ware, rather than soft-ware...as many devices don't have drivers, the drivers that are availible are not easy to install, and actually with all the graphics eye-candy enabled, I don't see how it is supposed to be more efficient than Windows AT ALL.
It's not to say I'm a hater of *nix operating systems, but should I try telling my boss I can't use the companies new software product, because I don't have a copy of Windows? I don't think so.
So, as far as I can see, its security through obsecurity, not many are writing malware for an OS, that few people on this planet use.
But nice of Dell to make a choice to customers, cant knock that at all...
Cue the 'penguine-hugger' hate...
Don`t feed the trolls
Of course is more secure, you can't do shit with it.
There speaks the truly uneducated. Have you ever even seen Linux? My server at home runs CS:S Server, uPnP media server for my PS3 / Windows PCs, LAMP (Linux Apache, MySQL, PHP) for web development, full mail server with anti-virus and spam filter, VMWare server for my customers remote hosting of their accounts systems, print server oh and I sometimes play EQ2 on it. None of these things have cost me a penny to set up and all are legal software. All this runs very happily on an old x2 4400 with 2gb RAM and 2TB of storage - so you still want to say you can't do shit with it?
Anyway - my point was that *NIX has been around in one form or another for a damn sight longer than 20 years. As to security, as long as you aren't logging in every day as root, it is basically more secure as *NIX was designed from the ground up a billion years ago to be a secure multi-user OS. However complacency within the Linux community may well come to bite them in the ass if desktop popularity takes off.
It's a lot more secure indeed, but I'm afraid that as with Apple, the OS will lose its security advantage when it's no longer the small kid that the bad guys simply don't notice. On the other hand, it has the most secure kernel of any OS, including Windows which has years of experience fighting malware.
But the big thing is that a big computer manufacturer puts its weight behind Linux (in a small way, but still). That's great news, as Linux has a plethora of markets where it is superior to Windows: old computers, computers with weak CPU's and/or limited RAM, netbooks,...
If Linux finally can become a force in the PC market, that's good for all of us. Competition is still the only thing that truly forces competitors to innovate.
However, it probably won't get over a few %....
@Silmarunya still waiting for that unix/osx/linux virus. It wont happen. Windows is just too easy to infect.
I've not spent a penny on Linux courses. Linux distributions, especially Ubuntu are easy and straight forward to use.
As for no-one uses it, doesn't Linux have the biggest market share for servers?