Over the years there have been many many people who have laid claim to how different versions of 'nix are better than Windows and things of that nature. And I am in the camp that would state that everything has its place in the computer world...except a Mac
But let me state a couple of things here. That NO computer...that is NO computer that is running ANY operating system is secure if just left alone by the owner/administrator. EVERY computer is only as secure as the administrator of that computer.
If you go to a website that deals with security issues and such such as securityfocus.com and do a search on vulnerabilities by platform you will find some surprising numbers.
Windows Vulnerabilities - 60 pages worth.
Linux Vulnerabilities - 13 pages worth.
Now mixed in those pages are critical vulnerabilities as well as minor ones. And you are now looking at that and going WOW windows has 6 times as many vulnerabilities as Linux. And that is true. But you also have to look at things in another light as well. Windows is running close to an 85% market share while only 5% can be attributed to Linux. Which means there are 17 times as many Windows computers out there as there are Linux. Which means there are maybe a conservative estimate of 5 times as many people out there looking security bugs and holes in Windows as there are Linux. Matter of fact there are more companies out there with the sole purpose of finding problems for Windows than there are for any other platform. So if there are 6 times as many pages of problems found but 5 times as many people looking...I begin to wonder what we would actually find in the Linux world if we suddenly took all of the people that are looking for vulnerabilities in Windows and had them start looking at Linux....I am thinking it would be quite a staggering effect.
I see that BEP has posted his transition. And I am glad to see that Linux has come a LONG way as far as their installers are concerned. But BEP let me point out something you had mentioned in your post as far as security is concerned. You had mentioned how there is a sys admin and then you and your wife. And that you can have files that she cannot see and vice versa. Let me point out that this is the base way XP is setup as well. You have a system admin and then you have users. And as far as being able to password protect files/ or make them read only and such....DOS had that ability...it is a left over from when DOS was more unix like and it has stayed with it ever since. And you can do the same in Windows as well.
I say this to say that I am not a Microsoft advertiser or anything like that. I say this all to say that you should not switch operating systems and things like that thinking that it will fix all your woes. BEcause there is no operating system that is perfect...if there was it would be at version 1.0.0.0.0.0.0 and would never change. And any computer is only as good as the administrator. I have had a Windows XP machine up and running for nearly 4 years now with a virus record of 0. I run my spy ware detection and removal regularly, I run a secondary Antivirus regularly, I periodically go through and clean out the old junk. I have software that I use to keep the system from fragmenting (only problem I have with windows).
I worked at an ISP once and we had BSD (unix) systems all over the place. And every now and then we would find out that a box had been hacked and someone was using for FTP storage of their movies and such. So it happens to unix as well as anything else. Just a matter of how well you keep it up.
Have a blessed day
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