One year later, Vista really is more secure
section: windows, for your questions: KezNews forum, 31.10.2007
Windows Vista was released to manufacturing a year ago next week, and landed on retail shelves exactly nine months ago today. To mark the occasion, I dragged a system out of mothballs and installed the original RTM version of Vista Ultimate on it. (Well, OK, I also needed a test bed for some upcoming work, but still…)
Anyway, I was surprised to see that the automatic update process picked up only 35 updates totaling 93.9 MB in size. That’s an average of fewer than four updates per month. And the number drops to fewer than three per month if you start counting with the original release to manufacturing date, which will mark its one year anniversary next week.
Jim Allchin, who led the Vista development and launch, is probably feeling at least somewhat vindicated today. After all, he predicted in an interview with PC World that patch counts would go way down with Vista:
“In my opinion, it’s the most secure system that’s available and the most secure system we have shipped,” he said. This means the number and severity of security updates Microsoft must release every month on Patch Tuesday, the name security researchers have given for when Microsoft releases its monthly security patches, should be reduced, Allchin said.
“That can be proven,” he said of his patch prediction. “We will see about that.”
The lineup of patches for October 2007 offers some instructive examples. MS07-55 was a Critical update for Windows XP SP2 but didn’t apply at all to Vista. MS07-56 was rated Critical for XP SP2 but was only Important for Vista. (For an explanation of the differences, see this page.)
And those 35 patches weren’t all security related, either. Some were reliability and compatibility fixes. There are updates to the Windows Mail Junk Mail filters, and in the case of this system at least one driver update. So how does Vista measure up to its predecessor if you filter out all but security updates? Out of curiosity, I went to the Microsoft Security Bulletin Search page and looked for Critical and Important bulletins issued in the past year. Here are the results:
* Windows XP with SP2: 41
* Windows Vista: 14
That’s almost as thorough a drubbing as the Patriots gave the Redskins last weekend. Microsoft has taken a lot of flak for Vista, but these results, in my opinion, validate the Security Development Lifecycle process, which was and is at the core of Vista’s design and evolution.
source:
blogs.zdnet.com
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Comments(8)
* windows xp with sp2: 41
* windows vista: 14
maybe it has something to
do with the fact that xp is being used much more than bloaty vista and thus making it
easier to find security flaws, also security issues affecting vista also affect xp anyway
in most cases.
more bullcrap from zdnet.
or it could be that vista has more complex problems that are not so easily fixed. sp1
needs to be huge.
confirms what we already know. but seriously. are all these so called critical updates
really required? with so many users loading up on 3, 4 or even 5 security applications -
what more can the paranoid ask for? a 6th anti-malware/spyware/adware/virus app in case
the other 5 didnt find that elusive, suspicous cookie! oh i had to get that out of my
system :d
vista = windows me
and linux is only for people who d'ont have anything to do
expect playing with these inusufl tools available on it and mac is for people who d'ont
know what is a computer. xp is the best os so far yeeeh....
vista is full of spys by microsoft so they can track what you do and what you instal and
that's why there is a lot of ram use. vista is only an apparence or eye candy full of
spy: you are not secure but the os him he is secure.
if there is good there is evil...
security threats are open, no matter what type of
security updates you receive, vulnerability is always there!
and how about the it
security businesses? how are they going to create money if vista is said to be more
secured? and most of all, how can microsoft create money too if they have alreay released
a satisfying stuff?
if you dont like vista dont install it and get xp
and if you install vista
here's an advice..
get the latest driver for your hardware
install
supported programs
have a hell of a pc specs
dont install all updates they are
not really needed just install performance update & hotfixes
vista ultimate is the best operating system ever,work almost 1 year with windows vista
ultimate and have never problems!
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lol... so innacurate
By jake on 01.11.2007 - 01:11