Which is the most secure *nix for home business/ office use? Would have to be fairly well up to date browser and drivers wise.
Myself I seem to have settled on RedHat - I've trialled the Desktop, and am part-way through a server trial. I've essentially not managed to keep the browser as secure as it has remained with RH6 when using FOSS Linux dists (the BSDs don't tend to have a current browser and that have no security issues posted). Having said that it appears even with RH6 fatal to run flash outside of a virtual machine or severely sandboxed login (e.g., xguest).
If you are asking for the most 'safest' solution for your home & business, RedHat is definitely out of the question.
Looking forward to some of the responses, curious about how some people think about this question. I'd recommend doing a bit more reading on 'how' to make a linux desktop secure.
One of the reasons open source is more secure than closed being I think that if necessary I can investigate security right down to kernel level. I am not a sys. admin. though, and preferably do not want to have to make a career of this!
I signed up to a Suse trial also, but found I would have had to of built too much of the s/w I needed, and so even though Suse do have an absolutely excellent development platform for users, wound up back with RH. I actually in the first instance found some dry land with OpenBSD, but the OpenBSD browser is generally not the most current release, and BSD browsers are typically not fully debugged security wise. So I had to venture off. Windows (being respectful here looked to me as though it was hacked before the security updates could be downloaded (I've, at least in the past, been someone who has had hackers sitting on my IP more or less 24 hrs a day). It is no doubt possible to install Windows 7 updates from CD, but I've not as yet figured this out. I can run Windows securely in a virtual machine when I inevitably need to.
As an aside, Linux Magazine have made an article from the current issue on the subject of CCTV projects available on the web:
On the same subject this is a recent project of my own:
<<code.google.com/p/gmotion/>>
My own experience is that local crime (if a problem for you) will prefer in the first instance to hack your computer by intrusion and direct access to the keyboard, it's a catch 22 for the crooks though that if you have a secure OS they can't hack your CCTV s/w, and if they can't hack your CCTV s/w, they (mostly) can't intrude
looked to me as though it was hacked before the security updates could be downloaded (I've, at least in the past, been someone who has had hackers sitting on my IP more or less 24 hrs a day). It is no doubt possible to install Windows 7 updates from CD, but I've not as yet figured this out. I can run Windows securely in a virtual machine when I inevitably need to.