Linux-based systems get a lot of press in IT trade publications. A lot of that press relates to its security characteristics.

Security expert Bruce Schneier today wrote about the “Storm Worm” again. Go and read it and become very afraid if you are running the Windows operating system. Become even more afraid if you are responsible for a bunch of them, like in a company. And then get a clue and morph them all into something better, like installing any of the Linux/Unix/BSD variants.

Operating system security is always a hotly contended subject, and last week Microsoft amped up the hype by claiming that Windows Vista and the soon-to-be-released 7 is the world’s most secure OS, beating both Linux and Mac OS X.

Here’s what Microsoft’s chief operating officer Kevin Turner had to say at the MidMarket CIO Summit last week:

Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees.

Even Google Chrome, touted for its security architecture, has security issues. According to one security expert, there are no secure browsers.

Microsoft's rivalry with Google heated up considerably this past year when rumors surfaced that Google might release its own operating system to compete with Windows. Has Google finally jumped into the fray with its own OS?

Led, somewhat ironically, by Microsoft Windows, operating system vendors and some other software vendors have been making their products more secure by default. They also have been providing tools and best-practice guidelines for application developers to improve security.

A Dutch university has landed a European Research Council grant to continue work on a Unix-type operating system that aims to be more reliable and secure than Linux or Microsoft Windows.

Security guru Joanna Rutkowska says that Apple's and Microsoft's proprietary operating systems are "badly designed from a security standpoint"; her firm uses GNU/Linux to create Qubes OS