Linux is the most secure, so why are you not using it?

Last week there was a study released by the UK government that they tested all of the OSes used within their networks and they found that Ubuntu 12.04 LTS was the most secure.

See the article in TechRepublic or the summary at Ubuntu (pdf)

They did 12 tests, rather comprehensive, fair, impartial and independent from the OS makers. Ubuntu passed 9 of the tests with no significant risks from the 3 it failed. Those 3 were mostly just failed on that item had yet to be independently reviewed. Expect Ubuntu 14 to pass at least 2 of those by April.

Windows only passed 8 the same as Mac Os and both had significant risks in at least 1 of the tests it failed.

Now on Friday I have this system I am working on and we did a backup and had to restore. The backup was before we made an account for me so after the restore I had to create an account for me on a system where there is no root login (Ubuntu doesn't let you log in as root in the default configuration, to compromise it you have to compromise a user account and then the root account) but through the magic of being at the terminal I created my own account.

This made some of the people watching comment that if it was so easy then why do they say Linux is secure. Because if you have physical access to the system it is easy to get into all of them, most have the access built in (Windows recovery mode for instance.)

You can make Linux not let you in by the recovery/single user mode but then just boot a live CD and edit the password and shadow files or on Windows boot a live cd and hack the registry with a Linux based Windows registry editor.

Mac probably the same as Linux as it is BSD.

Nothing is ever 100% secure but for what we can do Linux is the most secure OS out there. Period, full stop.

OK so there is a lot of inertia using Windows. People are used to it, they have programs they are used to using in Windows. Office apparently is a stumbling block although when people tell me libre-office won't do something I can usually find a way to do it easily.

Other people say, games, PC games need Windows don't they? Well, not since Steam went Linux.

So I wonder what excuse people will come up with next, it's too different from Windows? Well so is Windows 8.

There's no excuse now, just switch and be more secure.