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| OS | Pros | Cons |
| Windows XP Professional | Secure user log-in; user-level file access controls; file encryption. Includes a very basic firewall. Automatic, semiautomatic, and manual system updates. Many commercial and free firewall and antivirus products. | Firewall limited: Blocks only incoming connections and is not enabled by default (will change in SP2). Known flaws patched sometimes in days, sometimes in months. High volume of viruses and worms specifically target the OS. |
| Linux (2.4 kernel) | Secure user log-in; user-level file access controls; file encryption. Bidirectional firewall. Automatic, semiautomatic, and manual system updates in some distributions. Many commercial and free firewalls. Antivirus rarely needed. Security flaws almost always patched within days of discovery. | File encryption requires expert configuration. Firewall demands expert configuration in some distributions and is not enabled by default in most distributions. |
| Mac OS X | Secure user log-in; user-level file access controls; drag-and-drop file encryption. Bidirectional firewall. Semiautomatic and manual system updates. Many firewall and antivirus products. Fewer viruses and worms than Windows. | GUI-accessible firewall blocks only incoming connections and is not enabled by default. Bidirectional firewall configuration requires manual configuration or third-party utilities. Known flaws patched in days or weeks. |
HOW WE TEST: We test rewritable DVD drives under Windows XP Home on PCs with 1.67-GHz Athlon XP 2000+ processors and 512MB of DDR SDRAM. To test each drive, we use the bundled DVD video authoring, mastering, and packet-writing software; we use vendor-supplied media or Verbatim media. Tests conducted by the PC World Test Center. All rights reserved.