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Linux Security In Bed with Microsoft

In a blog, posted by Microsoft's Michael Howard, it was announced that Crispin Cowan, the Linux security expert behind StackGard, the Immunix Linux distro and AppArmor, has joined the Windows security team. I still recall when Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, touted the claim, "I'm saying it is absolutely not good reasoning to think you will get better quality out of Linux." Apparently, a few head honchos at Microsoft disagree.

In Michael Howard's post, he stated "In my opinion, AppArmor is shining example of his pragmatism, it’s simple and it works. What excites me the most is [Crispin will] bring a different perspective to the Windows team, and I’m a big believer in stirring the pot!" Howard adds that Crispin will join the team that worked on User Account Control. UAC is one of the most highly criticized aspects in Windows security; it's so criticized that most people report ignoring it or turning it completely off.

This is a big win for the software giant, Microsoft, but is it possibly also a win for Linux? Again and again, Microsoft and other proprietary software makers have tried to make the claim that Linux developers are incompetent, have no bacground or skill in security, and that software security must be left to the experts, namely themselves. Could the opposite be true? Could it be that a vast majority of Linux developers are better equipped to deal with modern day's security woes than the so called experts at Microsoft?

We're all sad to see one of our Linux gurus scooped up by a corporate giant, but it's bound to happen on occasion. Let's all hope that Crispin can enlighten some Microsoft folk with his open source wisdom. We're confident that MIcrosoft will have a lot more to learn from open source than open source will ever need to learn from Microsoft.

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