The Heartbleed drama queens

when one's intent is to beat the dog.

Remember this long un-patched flaw?

17-year-old unpatched Windows vulnerability discovered http://www.geek.com/chips/17-year-old-unpatched-windows-vuln...

Microsoft confirms 17-year-old Windows vulnerability http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/microsoft-confirms-17-yea...

And current research still shows that Free/Open-Source Software projects continue to have a lower defect rate than proprietary software does.

Seventeen years beat two years by a heck of a margin -- but the anti FOSS hulla-baloo isn't mentioning it, even by the vaguest allusions.

And typically when FOSS vulnerabilities are found they are swiftly patched as was the case with heartbleed. Yes. The drama surrounding heartbleed is a bit over the top. I will take Linux and the BSDs any day over Windows:)

I thought the heartbleed hole was 2 yrs old and only recently did the nefarious element take advantage. The recent LX'er article, "OpanSSL and Linux: A Tale...." explains much. As I understand it, this has been due to the biggies, "Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, IBM", etc, having driven Linux development for their benefit as opposed to that of the avg user. That kernel development has been aimed at the server end of the spectrum rather than to the avg user should come as no surprise. But, the bottom line is, we all get shortchanged in the end. I certainly hope this crisis wakes up a few heretofore short sighted players in the development end of Linux.

One serious FOSS flaw vs. tens of thousands of Windows flaws, so many that they're background noise. Yup, FOSS is baaaaaad.

"We all get shortchanged"? Doesn't that imply that I'm getting less in value than what I paid for it? I doubt those who pay attention to the value (which automatically excludes Windows users and iStuff fanbois) would agree with that assertion.

> those who pay attention to the value

It was merely a catchphrase. Not a good one, perhaps, but the one I jes happened to snag.

Besides, if we are to take your argument literally, what is your time worth? I know damn well the time I've spent learning Linux and computer technology over the last 13 yrs is not of little or no value, as you seem to be positing. Nor are the books and hardware I've payed for to become free of "Windows" and "iStuff". Freedom is always a "value" with a price tag.

Paying a bit more for hardware, to avoid the greater hidden costs of Windows and iCrud, makes perfect fiscal sense to me.

For the bean-counters, "freedom" is an intangible, but reducing the annual licensing costs has a real effect on the year-end balance sheet.