Security research suggests Linux has fewer flaws
The Linux operating system has many times fewer bugs than typical commercial software, according to an upcoming report. The conclusion is the result of a four-year research project conducted by code-analysis company Coverity, which plans to release its report on Tuesday. The project found 985 bugs in the 5.7 million lines of code that make up the latest version of the Linux core operating system, or kernel. A typical commercial program of similar size usually has more than 5,000 flaws or defects, according to data from Carnegie Mellon University.
"Linux is a very good system in terms of bug density," said Seth Hallem, CEO of Coverity, a San Francisco company that makes flaw-detection tools for software written in C and C++ programming languages.
Code-analysis tools typically use software-design principles to analyze a program's source code and flag any possible problems. Microsoft already uses such tools widely in its internal development, and many compilers are starting to include rudimentary versions of the programs as well. The tools are also being used to tame the wild coding prevalent around the Web.
