Open source and heterogenous networks as a key to combatting worms?

Freedom to Tinker: Why So Many Worms?

Many people have remarked on the recent flurry of worms and viruses going around on the Internet. Is this a trend, or just a random blip? A simple model predicts that worm/virus damage should increase in proportion to the square of the number of people on the Net.

Professor Ed Felten has identified the components of the software worm’s ideal ecosystem: the post’s comments extend and amplify some of those points. I disagree that “use Linux” is a solution: trading one kind of homogenous network for another is not all that valuable, even allowing for the benefits of the true code review that open source permits.