Is Vista more secure than XP?

Microsoft says security is demonstrably improved

Vista patched less often in first year of release

The Windows Vista operating system is less susceptible to security breaches than Windows XP and some Linux distributions, according to Microsoft.

Detailed analysis of reported security vulnerabilities and patch events in the twelve months since the first release of Windows Vista concluded it is better equipped to deal with viruses, malware and hacking attacks, says the firm's one-year vulnerability report.

"My analysis found that researchers found and disclosed significantly fewer vulnerabilities in Windows Vista than either its predecessor product, Windows XP, or other operating systems such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, and Apple Mac OS X 10.4," said Microsoft security strategy director Jeff Jones in the report.

In the first year of their respective releases, 36 vulnerabilities needed to be fixed in Windows Vista, compared with 65 for Windows XP and 493 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Workstation (214 of those labelled critical or important).