Oh, No! Linux is Insecure!

So if you've paid attention to any Linux news over the course of the last six months or so, you will have noticed an increasing number of stories about severe vulnerabilities found in the Linux kernel. And this increased news cycle of problems found within Linux has led to a number of content creators talking about how insecure Linux has become. And we can't really deny it, can we? Several of these content creators have gone so far as to say Linux is just as insecure as Windows ever has been and that you should just use Windows because at least it has a major corporation behind it. Now, far be it from me to talk about the truth, but that's what we're gonna do today. So I don't know where people ever got the idea that Linux was secure in the first place, because, and this is just the number one truth, if you take nothing else away from this video, this is what you should take away from it. Linux is not secure. It has never been secure. It's never been claimed to be secure or even be claimed to be more secure than Windows. Is it more secure in Windows in some places? Probably, but it has the same flaws inherently that Windows does in that it's created by human beings. As much as we want to put Linus Torvalds up on a pedestal and make him the god of Linux, the man's still a man. He's still a human being, and that being the truth just comes with all the inherent flaws that all humans have. He's an imperfect person. And along with every other Linux developer and Linux kernel developer, they all have flaws. Nobody's a perfect developer. They all have the ability to write crappy code. They all miss things just because that's just the nature of coding. That means that Linux, which is a code base of 30 million lines of code written by humans, is going to have flaws. And what do flaws mean? It means security vulnerabilities. It's the same as with Windows. Windows is a huge code base written by a whole bunch of humans. It has flaws. Now, obviously, the big difference is that Linux is open. Anybody can go in there and search for these flaws and try to fix them, whereas Windows is closed. So these content creators, and no, I'm not gonna name names. You can go find them pretty easily, who come out and say Linux is not secure are feeding you a false line because Linux was never secure in the first place. Linux has always been a flawed operating system, just like every other operating system. It's just the nature of being created by humans. So really, the question we have to answer is why are we seeing more of this? And why are we hearing more about the security flaws on Linux than we ever were before? Because really, the reason why, and we can explain the behavior way, the reason why a lot of people think Linux is more secure than Windows is because for many years, relatively, nobody actually used Linux, right? The user base of Linux was so small comparative to Windows, it wasn't a very big attack surface. Every big actor in terms of wanting to gather data or money or ransomware, whatever it is, would attack Windows first because there's just so many people who use Windows compared to Linux. What's changed is more people are using Linux. Linux is more mainstream now today than it ever has been before. Now, is it 90% of the market? No, of course not, it'll never get there. But it continues to grow month after month. More and more people are using it. More and more media, whether it's the independent media or YouTubers, content creators, influencers, you name it, are covering Linux. Folks like Linus Tech Tips are making Linux videos like twice or three times a week now. It's kind of crazy. And Linux is getting more and more coverage. And what does more coverage means? It means more attention on the thing itself. And that means that when we do have the security flaws, which we've always had, it gets covered more by the people who are newly here on Linux. And that leads to articles like, oh my God, Linux is insecure. It's always been insecure. We've had these discoveries of security vulnerabilities are nothing new. If you've followed Pharonix or any other Linux-type nerd blog, you can probably go back every single week for the last 30 years and find at least one minuscule security flaw that was discovered in Linux kernel. It's not a new thing. What's new is that they're getting more attention than ever before. Now, I have mixed feelings about this. On one side, more attention means more opportunities for developers to come here and do work on the Linux kernel. That is fantastic. We need that. We desperately need that because Linus, despite the fact that he is the Linux god, isn't gonna live forever, right? He is eventually going to either retire or die. And that means we're gonna have to have somebody to take over for him. And in order for that to happen, we need new blood. So I do think that the more attention on this kind of stuff is very good for that reason, if not for many others. On the other side of the thing, more attention does bring more idiots, okay? It brings morons to the table and they like to make mountains out of molehills. Now, I'm not trying to tell you that security vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel are insignificant or unimportant. What I'm trying to say is that they're not anything new and blowing them out of proportion does no good whatsoever. So going into this and creating clickbait titles like the one I'm no doubt going to leave on this video here I'm just as guilty, but at least I'm, you know, you click on mine, you're gonna get some truth out of it. I'm gonna fool you into learning something, I guess. I don't know, but the point I'm trying to make is that the more people, it just brings out the people who are interested in creating controversy and creating fear, uncertainty, and doubt. And that's just the nature of having more attention on something. It's just the bigger the community, the more colorful the edges are. So really that's all I have to say, but I just wanna make sure that people know this for true. Linux has never been secure. It just hasn't been, it can't be. I don't know who said it, there was a famous quote that said, if you really wanna be secure using technology, the best way to do it is to shut off all technology and go live in the woods. That's the only method that I know of to be truly secure. And obviously I don't wanna do that. I mean, Luke Smith is a fine guy, but I really don't wanna go live next to him. I'm just saying that. So anyways, that's it for this one. If you have any thoughts on this, you can leave those in the comment section below. I'd love to hear from you. Also, it feels weird. If you've watched this entire video, I don't know if you've noticed something a little bit different. I'm looking into the camera. Looking into the camera. It's felt so weird. I've been doing this for six years, guys. I've been doing a YouTube channel for six years. September of 2020 is when I started this channel. September 5th, I think. So we're coming up on six years. And I've never once looked into the camera. And now I am, and it feels very odd. So it'll take a while to get used to. Anyways, I did it. I did it. I'm happy about it. Anyways, comments in the comment section below. If you wanna comment on the camera position, you can. You can follow me on Massive Honor Odyssey. Those links will be in the video description. You can support me on Patreon at patreon.com slash TheLinuxCast. You can also support me by going to my merch store, which is at linuxcast.store, which is probably the URL I should give out now. And you can get awesome merch like this hat, the Linux Nerd hat. I also have one that just says Nerd and Geek on it. There's T-shirts and hoodies and backpacks and all sorts of stuff. So if you're interested in supporting the channel and you want to get something in return, head to linuxcast.store and you can find all the good stuff there. So thanks to everybody who does support me on Patreon and YouTube. You guys are all absolutely amazing. Without you, the channel just would not be anywhere near where it is right now. So thank you so very, very much. I'm looking over here because I can actually, I have my monitor over here where I can see myself. So every once in a while, I will look over there and like, man, this looks weird. This is what I looked like the whole damn time because I used to, this is the direction I used to face. That's so weird. Okay. Look at the camera, man. That's it for this one. Thank you guys so much for watching. I will see you on the next one. Goodbye.