Linux vs. Windows: Which Is More Secure?

Topic can be discussed under different security aspects.

1. Systems level security – Very first we can say Linux systems are less secure than Windows because Linux is open source, configuration information are stored in files and anyone can access them. So vulnerability is there since anyone who access the system can destroy them or make them malfunctioning. But when it goes into the deep Linux system avoid all the above mentioned vulnerabilities introducing root and normal user level accessing methods. Anyone who has privileges of root can only change the system or destroy.
   Earlier versions of Windows basically centered into single user level. So the single user can install program on the system and remove important files to the system likewise. But Windows Vista is capable to avoid the system risks since it maintains administrative level users for the privileged tasks and normal users for other tasks like in Linux. It is achieved security level than other releases of Windows. Other than that windows vista introduces warning system to admin user to preventing him doing malicious things to system.
   The conclusion that can be come across is both the systems are equal, considering system level security.
2. Virus, spam attacks – In this level of security we can directly say Windows is under high risk than Linux. It can be justified in many ways, because it’s true that phishers, virus writers, and other miscreants could target Windows system rather than Linux. And also it is necessary to rely on third party virus/spam guard on windows systems.
   The conclusion that can be made is Linux is more secure than Windows under above mentioned context.
3. User data confidentiality – Linux achieved this goal by introducing read write access levels specifying to users. Common Linux commands chmod, chown, umask used to specify the different access levels. Windows also supports for user data confidentiality by introducing NTFS file system. But not like Linux systems.
   According to this context Linux is support for high level user data confidentiality than Windows.
4. Patch Practice – Windows system maintain its stability by introducing automatic security patch updates. So these patches applied into system periodically without knowledge of the user. Similar thing happening on some distributions of Linux systems ( Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL5 ) But most cases it has to be done by the root searching and applying them manually. Expert Linux admin can make his system more secure.
   The conclusion is, both Windows and Linux can be categorized in same level.

Considering above mentioned all the facts it s obvious that is to say Linux systems are more secure than Windows systems.