I should preface this with an admission that Windows 2000 is still one of my main operating systems. It works fine. I have access to Windows XP on my laptop and elsewhere. However, Windows 2000 falls under my category of “if it works fine, keep on”.

With that said, it is with a personal interest that I view the report from the PC Tools people:

“…Statistics garnered from users of PC Tools’ ThreatFire security service showed that Vista let through 639 threats per 1,000 computers, compared with 586 for Windows 2000, 478 for Windows 2003, and 1,021 for Windows XP.

Working on an infection rate of 639 per 1,000 PCs means that nearly 64 per cent of Vista-based PCs have already been compromised, the company claims.”

link: Vista ‘more vulnerable’ than Windows 2000

Granted that PC Tools has a vested interest in finding security flaws because the company markets security software, the data are daunting. Other security firms may want to validate and replicate these findings. Nevertheless, even though my Windows 2000 machine could handle Vista, reports like this make me stay tied to the old operating system.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster:  http://flyinghamster.com/

[tag]microsoft, vista, security, malware, windows 2000, pc tools, validity, reliability[/tag]