Linux and lab security

For the last several months, I have been working hard to get Linux and FOSS more respect in the department of the university where I work. I have had a few small successes, but overall our department (and university) is still pretty much a Bill Gates heaven -- Windows servers providing services to labs that are 95% Windows boxes. Recently, I asked a supervisor why administration hasn't embraced Linux, or at least given it a fair place along side, say, Macintoshes. His reply was that the administration considers Linux to be a security threat. He indicated that it is fairly easy for anyone with an account on a Linux computer to do damage, or take control of, the rest of the network. That really didn't make sense to me, mainly for four reasons: 1) regular users would only have user-level accounts, which places many limits on their activity; 2) the ability of the user to take control of the network is also limited by the security measures of the other nodes; 3) people can also create stand-alone applications on windows computers, and it is actually not that difficult to hack the admin password of a windows box (or so I've read), making a Windows computer as much a security threat as a Linux box.; 4) our labs allow students to connect to the wireless network with their laptops (meaning people could be bringing in their own Linux boxes anyway). But, to be honest, I've only been a solid Linux user for about a year... there are plenty of things about Linux and network security that I don't understand. Maybe there is something I'm not seeing here? Any feed back, information, or opinions would be appreciated.

PerlCoder (http://indicium.us)

More Links http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/info/faq.cfm http://www.linux.org/info/linux_govt.html Maybe your supervisor and administrators are uninformed to put it nicely.