Good article, but the linux box could have also been brought down, thats why
security updates are important in any OS including Linux!

From the article:

Plenty of commentators have made hay of the MacBook Pro being the first to
exit the race, and Linux zealots are sure to conclude the contest results
prove the superiority of that platform. Maybe. But that's not how it looks to
Macaulay, who says with a few hours of tweaking, his exploit will also work
on OS X and Linux.