Why Chicago Chose Linux

[JMaguire]

The city of Chicago recently migrated to Red Hat's Linux platform, attempting to save money by moving away from the Sun Solaris platform.

What's your take? Was this a good move?

Here's the original article:

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osr...le.php/3641251

[JPnyc]

Well being more popular and open source, wouldn't every hacker have a better idea of red hat's vulnerabilities?

[JMaguire]

In terms of vulnerabilities, that's addressed in the article:

But she opted to avoid Windows. “When you think of Windows server, you think of rebooting the server, of always having to apply security patches. You think of viruses,” she tells Datamation. “Not that it’s not great for some things, but Linux and Solaris prove to be a lot less headaches than any other platform.”

Here's the full article:

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osr...le.php/3641251

[JPnyc]

Well that performace difference is nothing to sneeze at (roughly triple) but I always wonder how much of the windows list of KNOWN vulnerabilities is really due to shortsighted programming, and how much is due to popularity?

I'm not sure of the ratio of windows server OS being employed, vs. the Linux and Unix numbers, but for home us clearly the windows OS abounds. No one spends any time trying to hack into or write viruses for linux home users since there's so few of them.

[ua549]

She obviously does not understand how to manage a Windows platform.
My servers are rebooted on a yearly schedule since the only time they need to be rebooted is when applying a kernel patch.

The issue with Microsoft patches is that they release packaged patches with the understanding that every installation is running the entire compliment of code and it is easier for the novice user/administrator to simply apply an entire patch package and reboot a system rather than selecting appropriate patches to apply then stop and start affected services. A knowledgeable administrator selects the patches to apply no matter the OS.

I have to patch my *nix boxes just as often as my Windows servers. IMO the operating systems have similar levels of threat exposure. The threats are just different. Both must be configured and managed properly.