iPod Fans

Great little article by Ed Bott over at ZD.net this week on OS security comparisons.  Turns out that not only does Vista beat XP, but it also outperforms - wait for it, wait for it... - Mac's OS X.

Ed's experiment is fairly simple and can be repeated by anyone with a bit of time on their hands: Simply, Ed compared the number of security updates released for all three operating systems within specific timeframes. Let's have a look:

November 2007 through July 2008

• Windows XP: 23
• Windows Vista: 19

Grand Total for the period from November 2006 through July 2008:

• Windows XP: 64
• Windows Vista: 33

Over the last 21 months (Vista isn't quite two years old yet), the monthly average of XP security updates has been roughly double that of Vista. If that isn't a powerful statistic, I don't know what is.

Perhaps more interesting is this bit about how Vista fared against Apple's Mac OSX:

Although it’s difficult to do Apple-to-Windows comparisons, I tried my best, using the Apple security updates page. By my count, between November 2007 and July 2008 there were 22 updates for Mac OS X and its included components, including seven Security Update packages designed to fix multiple vulnerabilities (such as the 13 separate fixes listed in the Mac OS X 10.5.4 update released on June 30). That’s four more than the Vista patch count during the same period and one less than the XP total. Make of that what you will.

"Make of that what you will." I couldn't have said it better myself.