Doesn’t this mean that Open Source is more vulnerable to attacks by Hackers?

This is probably the biggest myth of our time. And you will be surprised how many technologists don’t understand it.

Here is the truth

Open Source systems have to be compiled before they are installed on a computer. Think of compiling the code as putting a ‘body’ on a bare car. It’s true that you can open the hood, but you have to open it from the inside of the car! In other words, you can be vulnerable using Open Source technologies – if you allow it.

For those still in disbelief, if it were true that Proprietary systems were secure, then would it be possible to find no-cost copies of Windows operating systems freely distributed on the Internet?

My opinion is that Open Source is really more secure than Proprietary systems. The reasoning is that when a programmer creates a program and decides to Open the Source to the public, other programmers take a look at the code and communicate with the original programmer about what they feel should be the right way to approach say a specific part of the program.

This process creates strong ‘best-practices’ and forces Open Source programmers to follow standards. Manufacturers of Proprietary systems on the other hand are notorious for not following standards. And, because they don’t follow these best-practices and standards, if they go into further developing their technology they have to create their own standards (generally with a mentality of need – good or bad, as long as it gets the job done). This leaves very little room for public acceptance of a standard and whether a standard that is developed by a Proprietary systems manufacturer is stable or not, it becomes necessary to use to have the convenience of the specific technology they are developing.

This non-standardized implementation of technology is much more vulnerable to many attacks! This is probably why Microsoft has to release so many fixes (called patches) to their technologies. Here is a website directly from Microsoft that has the current list of patches that are available for Microsoft products. From the Product/Technology down-drop, select 'Windows XP Professional' and let it search. For us it took about 15 seconds for the search to complete and it brought back nearly 400 results!

By contrast, there are UNIX systems that haven’t released a single fix/patch in over 5 years (as of this writing). Keep in mind that these UNIX systems are open to public scrutiny. Now isn’t that what you call ‘mature, and secure software’? I do.