RE: Which Windows OS is Safest

["Kenton Smith" <ksmith () chartwelltechnology com>]

I would be careful to draw specific conclusions from this thread as I've
seen little consensus in the threads so far.

I think the important thing (and one commonality in this thread) is to make
sure that the infrastructure is secure and that the O/S is fully patched
with all unnecessary services turned off. We have users with 2000 and XP and
I haven't seen anything to tell me one is more *secure* than the other. One
bonus though; XP has a built-in firewall (limited though it may be). And if
you're going to choose 2000, go with SP4 not 3 as suggested earlier.

Kenton

-----Original Message-----
From: Boaz [mailto:boclark () cox net] 
Sent: Monday, June 28, 2004 10:51 AM
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: RE: Which Windows OS is Safest

Wow what timing, I was going to post the following, I have a friend that has
a small business, and is using Win 98 on two machines, Win 2000 pro on two
machines, XP Pro on one machine and XP Personal on another.  There is a
Linux firewall, and the server is running Novell.  Since he needs to upgrade
the two machines running Win 98, he want to standardize on one OS.

He is leaning toward XP.  If I am reading the results of this original post,
Win 2000 Pro (patched to current versions) would be a better choice.  Is
that correct?  If so should he also get rid of XP.  This is a business that
needs security and confidentiality of files.

It is not possible to go to any other OS for the workstations other than
Windows.

Thank you in advance for any replies.

Bo Clark





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