Windows Vista, 90-Day Vulnerability Report

The latest Microsoft operating system has been available to business users since November 30, 2006 and to the general public starting with January 30, 2007. On February 28, 2007 Windows Vista celebrated its 90th day on the market, judging by the business launch.

Microsoft has applauded Windows Vista as being the most secure Windows platform available. But is there any truth behind this? Have you ever wondered, in all the time that the operating system has been available, how did it perform, security wise?

Well, are you going to be surprised to find out that Windows Vista outperformed the likes of Mac OS X 10.4, Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 and Ubuntu 6.06 LTS? Because it did. "December brought the first public disclosure of a vulnerability and February brought the first Security Bulletin affecting Windows Vista. Has it been a good or a bad 90 days for security vulnerabilities? I have analyzed the vulnerability disclosures and fixes for Windows Vista and examined the results in the context of its predecessor, Windows XP, along with several other modern workstation operating systems including Red Hat, Ubuntu, Novell and Apple products to try and answer that question," revealed Jeff Jones Security Strategy Director in Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing group.

Jeff Jones is the one that put together the Windows Vista - 90 Day Vulnerability Report, highlighting the fact that in the first 90 days on the market, Vista managed to be more secure not only than Windows XP, but also than a whole range of operating systems that are synonymous with a high level of security.

Just take a look at the adjacent graphic. It compares the volume of vulnerabilities of Windows Vista, Windows XP, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Workstation, Rhel4ws - Reduced Component Set, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, and Apple Mac OS X 10.4.

In the first 90 days there have been a total of five vulnerability disclosures for Windows Vista and Microsoft fixed one, 14 were fixed in Windows XP, 181 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Workstation, 137 in Rhel4ws, 71 in Ubuntu, 19 in Novell Suse Linux and 20 in Mac OS X in the first 90 days.