Is Antivirus Ready for Open Source?
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| The open source software movement has come a long way. A decade ago,
| nobody but the actual participants in open source projects and other
| IT enthusiasts gave the movement much chance of succeeding, but today,
| it's tough to deny the success of open source products. However, when it
| comes to security tools and antivirus software--the thin blue line
| separating our computers from certain infection on the Internet--there
| is less agreement that open source can secure as well as traditionally
| developed, closed-source products.
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| There is no denying the huge impact that open source development has had,
| and continues to have, on the IT industry. Indeed, one only has to look
| as far as Linux, which is the second-most popular operating system (to
| Windows), and the fastest growing operating system in terms of usage.A
| pache remains, by far, the most popular HTTP server on the Net, and the
| Eclipse Java framework is rapidly gaining market and mind-share, and is
| now a real threat to Microsoft in development tool supremacy.
|
| The popularity of open source has both philosophical and practical roots.
| It used to be that developers and users would choose open source primarily
| because it didn't come from Microsoft. They might overlook somes
| hortcomings in the product, such as an unattractive interface, because
| they felt strongly about the need for diversity. Not anymore. Nowadays,
| open source tools, such as PHP, Perl, and JBoss, are getting use because
| they're easy to get, easy to use, and they do the job. In many cases
| (but not all), open source software is also cheaper, and that will always
| be a factor in some people's minds.
|
| Backers of open source software commonly cite the frequency of updates as
| one of the advantages of their method. Having a worldwide network of
| motivated enthusiasts and experts on hand to scour source code, make
| additions, and fix bugs is better than waiting for months for a vendor
| with questionable motivations to roll out an update, they say.
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http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs091906-story01.html
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