Related link: http://www.eetimes.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=18901858
This article is a proof that even smart people get quirky from sitting too deep within academia for too long. The paper quotes a CERIAS report that Linux, Windows and all other common platforms are insecure and should not be used for critical applications. The humorous value of this article is just too high… “Those people arguing the dogma of “Linux is better” or “Windows is better” are missing the point — both are inadequate for these needs.” and “Do they want a system with flaws in it to be used in national defense?” are just some of the examples…
to be fair...
To be fair, the article does seem to be talking about the use of these operating systems in embedded applications such as missile guidance and aircraft controls. They're not talking about webservers or desktops.
to be fair...
But the author owns a company that makes their own embedded OS. And the argues that Chinese and Russian miscreants could submit code to be incorporated into Linux.
If that doesn't set off your bullshit detector, I don't know what to say.
to be fair...
My apologies, I was a bit quick. I was referring to a press release this article refers to. I remembered the domain name from a recent Groklaw link, then only skimmed the article and saw a lot of the same arguments, and assumed it was the one I had seen before.
Groklaw's take on the press release referred to in the article
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20040411073918151
You might want to read this as well, although there's not much news to be had.
to be fair...
he is right though, there is a very real risk involved in "open source" in that people can introduce deliberate backdoors just as easily as fixing them.
And a good programmer could well hide that backdoor in such a way that code reviewers would never find it (maybe by deliberately making it depend on 2 or more bits of code which are part of different subprojects).