Linux vendors spend money building security bug fixes. How much longer will they give them away for free, writes SecurityFocus columnist Hal Flynn.. . .
Linux vendors spend money building security bug fixes. How much longer will they give them away for free, writes SecurityFocus columnist Hal Flynn.

In the last week of October, Apple debuted its latest installment of the BSD-based operating system Mac OS X 10.3, also known as Panther. With it came many new features, as well as some security fixes.

And not just a couple security fixes, several of them. All told, nine security fixes ranging from problems in Mac OS X applications such as finder, to freely available applications such as OpenSSH.

The security patches created a huge controversy when they came out, owing to a rumor that the only way to get the fix would be to purchase the upgrade, a $129 outlay.