Linux: The little OS that could

ZDNET: “As I escorted him to the elevator after an interview in 1998, Gordon Eubanks, then president and
CEO of Symantec, made a casual observation that forever changed my perspective on open source software. At a
time when the world’s No. 2 computer security company realized almost all its revenue by protecting machines
running Microsoft and IBM/Lotus Development platforms, Eubanks noted that open source was inherently easier to
protect than proprietary software.

Using Linux as an example, he said, “Everybody can see what’s under the hood, so we’re on equal footing with
hackers. With proprietary systems, intruders often have illegal means of learning things about the underlying code
that are superior to the legal information at our disposal – even though we get excellent cooperation and support
from Microsoft.”