Which Is Buggier - Windows or Linux?

Source: OS Opinion

Which operating system -- Windows or Linux -- deserves the dubious title, "Most Prone to Bugs and Security Problems"?

The answer, judging by a quick survey of industry headlines, seems obvious: It must be Windows. Every week brings a new announcement of yet another Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) security fix. To best describe the number of security bulletins the software giant puts out, the word that jumps to mind is "blizzard."

So it comes as quite a surprise that Linux is far more prone to problems than Windows -- at least, judging by one side-by-side comparison (described later in this report). In any case, answering the question of which OS wins the dubious "Bug" award requires plenty of twists and turns.

"There's a perception that the development process that Microsoft uses has not been a sound one in terms of potential back-door types of security breaches," Gartner analyst George Weiss told NewsFactor. The company's "ability to address and fix the problems in a very timely manner" also has been questioned, he said.

And IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky pointed to "a perception that Windows 95 and Windows NT were buggy. Microsoft says Windows 2000 and its follow-on products are significantly better," he told NewsFactor, "but when we do surveys, people seem to still hold on to the old perception: They class Windows NT and Windows 2000 roughly the same for reliability.

"Which I think is more of a marketing problem for Microsoft than a reality," Kusnetzky said.