Network Security and Linux: Is it really better?

Microsoft has the monopoly of the market and has used an aggressive marketing strategy; many times discounting open source software and other GNU licensed software’s. The major issue being security and the non availability of any company for security updates in case of a security compromise or threat. Linux network security has many single end users shy away from adopting Linux as their operating system. Also cited is the lack of much application software.

Yet when it comes to the enterprises and server software Linux is far ahead of Windows primarily because of the cost factor. The majority of DNS servers and other web hosting servers are Linux based because it is truly stable and secure (can be left for 6 months or more without a hitch, if properly configured). Proper configuration requires an expert on Linux and this is the crux of the matter. Windows Server operating systems are more costly, easier to configure and requires constant administration. Linux seems to have an edge over Windows in the cost and stability factors and Linux network security has to be viewed from the versions of Linux installed. Looking at the various reviews by companies that tested and tried Linux the results are such.

• Red Hat scores good for large number of computers on the network and for constant customer support and patches
• Novell Linux Desktop 9 too scores well for customer support.
• Ubuntu Linux 5.10
• SUSE Linux 10

Other versions of Linux are equally good with BSD and its various versions, Digital Unix, and other products from Ximian, Mono and IBM. The Linux kernel is the core of Linux. What does the linux kernel do? If we look at the Linux kernel source code we find that it includes multitasking, virtual memory, proper memory management, TCP/IP networking, shared libraries and demand loading. What is the latest version of Linux kernel? The Kernel has not changed much since 1996 but has had major updates. These are called Vanilla Kernels which are constant updates keeping in mind network security Linux based operating system.

As for the security issue everything depends on the configuration and the setup. The set up of the Linux server and configuration should be such that it does not affect the security of the network.

Continue to : Problems with Network Security, Linux

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