On: Chinese military to replace Windows OS amid fears ...

[hutzlibu]

"Open Design Principle is much better long term strategy than Security by Obscurity."

Better would be both. You have a strong, open base, like Linux, but you modify it, so you habe a second level of defence.

[andreime → hutzlibu]

This approach ends up blocking you from receiving updates due to do incompatibilities between your changes and upstream so it's not a great solution.

[hutzlibu → andreime]

If you do it right, you get all the core components without incompatibulities.

But you will have to do more by hand and yes, then there is also a chance that you mess up those patches and create new vulnerabilities. But if you have a big budget ... like if you are a big military and security really matters, than it is probably worth it.