Vatican Library Uses Linux
Posted by Fr. Stephen, MSC Nov13

I was browsing the Vatican Library website when I chanced upon this bit of interesting information. The Information Technology Center (C.E.D.) of the Vatican Library uses Red Hat. The site’s info page reveals that C.E.D.’s networks “are protected internally by two first-level firewalls in a Linux Red Hat environment”. But that’s not all. Of the 27 servers the Center uses, 19 are in a SUSE and Red Hat environment. The rest are running in a UNIX AIX environment and in a Microsoft environment (virtualized on Linux systems with VMWare).

A variant of the Red Hat distro is also employed in the Digital Photographic Laboratory of the 500 year-old Library. According to this page, the operating system used for the storage equipment in the Digital Photographic Laboratory is Centos.

More technical information here about the systems they use in the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana.

Established by Pope Nicholas V in 1448, the Vatican Library is one of the oldest libraries in the world. It contains more than 75,000 manuscripts and over 1.1 million printed books from throughout history, which makes it one of the most important repositories of knowledge in the world. The Information Technology Center of the Vatican Library was set up as early as 1985.

I am overwhelmed to know that the Church’s most important library uses the most secure operating system in the planet.



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4 CommentsLeave a comment »
  • 13 November 2009
    NickF said:

    Well, Linux is secure, but I won’t go as far as being considered “the most secure”. The very basic idea of classifying an OS with catchphrases (like Apple does) is very misleading. OpenBSD has a much stronger and proven security record, for example. But at the very foundation it has to do with the fact that linux being not widespread help to keep it off from security issues. If it become more widespread, than security may come up as an issue.

    Disclaimer: I don’t want to bash linux, I am an Ubuntu user and developer since 2001. I just want to be realistic.

  • 13 November 2009
    Debianero Rumbero said:

    ‘But at the very foundation it has to do with the fact that linux being not widespread help to keep it off from security issues. If it become more widespread, than security may come up as an issue.’

    @NickF, that’s bulsh*t and please don’t help to spread that lie.

    Think for a moment: there’re more Linux servers than other OS-whatever in the world now!

    Linux architecture is stronger than MS architecture.

  • 13 November 2009
    NickF said:

    It’s not a lie. Linux is inherently stronger, that is absolutely true. However there is no perfect and secure system. Assuming Linux is not vulnerable by design, that is a lie, because no system is not vulnerable or unbreakable by design. It doesn’t matter if Linux is widespread on the server market, what matters is the number of attacks that are available out there.

    See, the point is not about what’s the most secure system, but what is the most secure practice an IT can adopt to stay secure. A poorly maintained linux system can be as insecure as the next OS. I personally would never use OSX as a server neither. I know of lots of exploited linux and unix machines, which were poorly maintained. As well as many windows machines poorly maintained.

    So I stick to my point. Linux is designed to be more secure than windows, and it is most definitively. However it’s not necessarily the most secure OS.

  • 14 November 2009
    Darren said:

    Just try and hack into an AS/400 (iSeries). Probably why they are used by the Casinos in Las Vegas !!!!

    These are definitely “secure by design”.

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Fr. Stephen Cuyos is a Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) priest, who blogs about his faith and ministry, about the use of new technologies and social media for evangelization, as well as his advocacy for Linux and Free/Open Source Software.

Fr. Stephen is available for talks, seminars, recollections, retreats and workshops. Click here for more info.

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