On Sun, Feb 23, 2003 at 02:21:12PM -0800, Roger B.A. Klorese wrote: > I am willing to bet that, if Linux actually ever does increase its > desktop market share, the number of viruses/worms for it will go up > tremendously as well, for two reasons: > > 1) Only critical mass will make anyone care to write them. > 2) As a more naive user community comes on-board, they will update their > systems to reflect security advisories much less frequently than the > geekerie do.
You're probably right. I look forward to sufficient desktop market share for Linux and the like to enable this prediction to be tested. However, I didn't specifically mention Linux (preferring OpenBSD myself). I do note, however, that (a) the last time a Unix/Linux-based virus/worm had significant operational impact on the Internet was November 3, 1988, and (b) a key component in its propagation (sendmail) still enjoys quite a large market share to this day, even though postfix, exim, etc. have eroded it somewhat. ---Rsk
