Microsoft or Apple - Who Is the Faster Patcher? 252
Amy Bennett writes "And the answer is... Microsoft. Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology analyzed 658 high-risk and medium-risk vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft products and 738 affecting Apple. They measured how many times over the past six years the two vendors were able to have a patch available on the day a vulnerability became publicly known, which they call the 0-day patch rate. What they found: 'Apple was below 20 [unpatched vulnerabilities at disclosure] consistently before 2005,' said Stefan Frei, one of the researchers involved in the study. 'Since then, they are very often above. So if you have Apple and compare it to Microsoft, the number of unpatched vulnerabilities are higher at Apple.'"
Apple's shortcomings (Score:5, Interesting)
If they really want to be taken more seriously in the enterprise market, they're going to have to step up and treat these things a bit more professionally, instead of just basically saying "trust us and don't ask too many questions".
Re:Just more FUD (Score:5, Interesting)
The study speaks of things that can be known. Your response speaks of things that can't be known. You seem to be slinging the uncertainty and doubt part yourself.
Re:Just more FUD (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Well, duh... (Score:2, Interesting)
Microsoft is at least 10 times bigger than Apple at the moment, and so is their OS development. How does Apple have MORE unpatched errors when the Mac OS is not the one getting riddled with trojan horses, spyware, viruses and stolen data bases? So, one unpatched error does not equate to another.
The time of Knowing about the flaw to the time it is patched -- does this just mean a different reporting standard?
Of these errors from Apple -- how many of them are from the OS? Python, the Apache web browser -- a lot of open source and third party apps are bundled in the Mac UNIX system. I've heard reports that most of Apple's unpatched problems are actually these third-party apps. Without actually RTFA (I can't be bothered with that), I'd say, that's how Apple is getting a higher number.
IF Apple does bundle them -- then they kind of do have to deal with the problems -- it's the whole widget they give to the customer, so as an Apple customer -- my user experience is affected wether or not it was Python or Applescript that screwed up my iCal alarm. However, that said. it is pretty cool that Apple is pushing these third-party apps and improving them. The net result is that you have a synergistically powerful and useful computer. As a developer, I have a well installed suite of development tools for web solutions and even standard computing. I can send my python script to another Mac user, and they can run it if they have the latest OS update. You can't count on that on other systems == not even LINUX (as far as I know but I didn't RTFA), has a reliable bundled suite of development tools or apps.
This is probably just another security firm, trying to glom on some attention for itself, by basically making up a problem that doesn't exist. Yes, Apple has take its time on fixing a lot of known errors. I'd much rather they fix Leopard for stability right now, rather than chase down some buffer overflow in Python. They are both important however, but having better uptime with Tiger seems like a bigger improvement, rather than all the more up to date and patched third party applications in Leopard.
By net results alone, Apple is far ahead of Microsoft. Whether app problems are patched or unpatched, the User experience is what matters most. That's why Microsoft has had a lot of issues converting XP users to Vista.
Re:Look at it my way (Score:3, Interesting)
More like there are two types of locks for your front door, we'll assign these locks random brands: Capple and Spikrosoft. Capple has a very small percentage of the market and Spikrosoft has a very large percentage.
Let's say there is a vulnerability that will allow access, but you need to order a specific sets of tools to gain access to each individual brand of lock. Because Spikrosoft has a much larger market share, the tools specific to breaking into that lock will much more heavily be ordered because much more stuff (inside the doorway) can be had by the sheer number of doors. This lends the doorway more likely to immediate break-in simply by popularity.
A break-in through either case is equally devastating, but as I mentioned it's a factor of total number effected by the vulnerability and not quality of product individually.
Re:Just more FUD (Score:3, Interesting)
"Apple did not rank in Gartner's top 5 worldwide PC vendors, No. 5 of which was Toshiba with a 4.4 percent share."
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/17/apples_u_s_mac_market_share_rises_to_8_1_percent_in_q3.html [appleinsider.com]
A few OS X and iApp bugs and crashes.. (Score:3, Interesting)
OS X 10.5.2, Mail.app, when accessing some IMAP4 accounts the "Get Mail" button fails to retrieve mail for some accounts. It's a know issue and it has been since the 10.5.2 update. I am not the only one to run into it, I checked the Apple forums and tested Mail from several different networks and two different Macs. I 'fixed' this bug in Mail.app by switching to Thunderbird.
OS X 10.5.2, When printing to a printer connected to an Airport Express the OS fails to connect to the printer. It's a know issue and it has been since the 10.5.2 update. If anybody has this problem see this thread [apple.com], there is a fix available here [easysw.com].
OS X 10.5.2,Sometimes when putting the computer to sleep the screen stays black after it wakes again. The OS is up and running but the display does not light up. It looks as if this can be temporarily fixed by resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) [apple.com] but the problem will resurface.
OS X Various versions, Windows networking, i.e. Samba functionality is regularly broken by point updates of OS X. Of course this is usually solvable if you are a bit of a nerd. All you have to do is plow through sites like macwindows.com [macwindows.com] and hit the command line but it's still bloody annoying. And don't try to tell me this issue is all Microsoft's fault because I know this is Apple screwing up with Samba.
Now I know these aren't crashes but they are glaring examples of bugs in applications and system components that Apple is taking forever to fix and for me, as an Apple user, this is pretty galling. I need patches for bugs like this more often than every 2-3 months.
If you want crashes:
Try installing iLife 06 apps: iMove, iDVD or iPhoto that shipped with the 10.4.x version of OS X that your mac shipped with on 10.5.x. On my MacBook Pro they all crash without warning, on a fresh install of Leopard even after upgrade to 10.5.2. The iMovie help still crashes on me 10.5.2 every time I try to access the instructions on how to hook up a camcorder. Of course one could argue that a user should not install iLife 06 on Leopard but I fail to see why I should shell out money for iLife 08 when 06 serves my purposes just fine.
I am a Mac user and have been for years. I am more satisfied with the Mac than I was either as a Windows or Linux user but I wish that Apple would stop swamping me with new cool features and spend a few months concentrating simply on making the OS and especially the iApps more stable. I like new features but I like stability more.
Re:Well, duh... (Score:3, Interesting)
If you want a reason that *only* falls on the *shouldn't* side, here's one for you -
It should be up to the person who writes it (or company who commissions it) to decide what they want to do with it. Or are you advocating that *their* freedom of choice to do with *their* creation what they want within legal bounds be taken away to give you a "freedom" that is actually a privilege granted by the people who create something and not a right that you have inherently?
Now, since I presume *you* are not a two year old, let us know when you're ready to join us in the real world.