Microsoft patches faster when problems are open sourced

. . . keeping an eye on the penguin

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Jan. 12, 2006

It's a truism that Linux and the other open-source operating systems are patched faster than Windows.

After all, one of the whole points about open-source programming is that with many people looking at the code, errors are found, and fixed, quicker.

It seems that may be true of Microsoft as well.

In a new patches study by Washington Post security columnist, Brian Krebs, he found that Microsoft fixes its security holes faster, much faster, when the whole world knows about them than when the company is told privately.

Krebs analyzed Microsoft's patch data for the last three years. He found that, when very few people knew about a bug, "In 2003, Microsoft took an average of three months to issue patches for (critical) problems reported to them. In 2004, that time frame shot up to 134.5 days, a number that remained virtually unchanged in 2005."

But, if the problem was fully disclosed, if was an 'open' problem, "In 2003, it took an average of 71 days to release a fix for one of these flaws. In 2004 that time frame decreased to 55 days, and in 2005 shrank further to 46 days."

Krebs goes on to let Microsoft tell why it takes them so long -- quality assurance -- and why some security companies, like eEye Digital Security, think that leaving users open to attack isn't the greatest idea since sliced bread.

What I got out of this -- besides more confirmation that Linux patching is far better than Windows -- is yet more proof that open-source is the better way to develop software.

Even Microsoft, it seems, does a much better job when information is freely shared. Interesting, isn't it?

--Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

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