Security

Viruses, spyware, other malware, intrusions, cybercrime, record theft are all part of the networked world. This is an area where open source software has a clear lead, and it’s not just the case that commercial software is a bigger target. Most often, a large open source development and user community can respond more quickly than an internal development staff at a commercial software provider. David Wheeler explains.

The diagrams below illustrate a difference between a commercial software application from Microsoft (top) that competes with Apache Web Server (bottom). The drawings illustrate loading a single web page with a single image. Each connecting line represents a system call; each system call represents a potential problem. Original information here.

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS Server)

Apache Web Server