Apple questions

i have a question, now more and more people are turning to apple and mac osx, due to the viruses and the disatisfaction with microsoft in general, will there be more and more viruses for the mac operating system. just wonderin?

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The bigger Apple gets. The more like Microsoft they become, the easier they are to program as programmers learn their techniques, the greater the risk... Then there will be danger of nobody in programming ready to create defenses that work, or removal tools.

Yeah, the main reason that all the viruses and other malware are made for Windows is because it has like 90% of the OS market share. If Linux, Unix or Mac had that sort of market share all the viruses and malware would be developed for them.

So I reckon that if Windows had a real competitor in the OS Market share, it would probably have a competitor for the amount of malware developed for it.

Wasn't there a story on here a week ago that a trojan virus was developed for the latest Mac OS?

Yeah there was, This story (http://www.techspot.com/news/30557-mac-os-x-trojan-reported-in-the-wild.html). As long as Apple's market share continues to grow so will the amount of malware for Mac, and also so then will the Mac malware protection market grow.

I don't know. Don't people who hate Microsoft write all the viruses?

I have both Windows and Mac systems. I can honestly say that the lack of viruses did figure in my choice. I can also say that given the price of Macs, few of the anti-social pimply-faced youths can afford them and hence don't have access to them to write their darned trash.

The BSD backbone of OSX, and the UNIX/Linux operating systems are inherently safer than that of Windows XP (Vista with UAC on narrows the gap). So yes, the much smaller userbase helps avoid viruses, but the larger problem is the OS itself makes it much more immune to them.

thats good to know, iv just bought a macbook pro for my uni course, and iv got windows vista comp aswell, i find though and this is pretty obvious, that unless you visit the sites that are likely to give you viruses you dont really get them, iv got an old laptop that iv upgraded that i use as a "network drive" to download all the programs and files that i need, i am actually quite surprised how many files are infected, so i think im guna treat my macbook pro like a god due to the cost of it and save the downloading and web browsing for my windows comps!!! i cant wait to get it!!! im fed up of windows grrr!!! does anyone think the prices for macs will ever drop???

Yeah, I went without any firewall or virus programs for six months doing my usual internet usage and didn't get any viruses. Never had one with or without virus protection on, I think you gotta be really naive to get them most of the time.

I dont think that Macs are that badly priced, I mean yeah its more expensive than buying your own PC. But you are paying for the Mac brand, the Mac OSX operating System, which you have to have a Mac to run (except the illegal options, OSX-86 and those recent companies that let you do it via USB or a pre configured OSX-86 option).

And really the thing about Macs 'Just work' is semi true I mean all the Mac apps are codded pretty much for 1 set of standard hardware(or a few variations) rather than the zillion different possible PC hardware combinations that PC apps have to be compatible with.

(BTW I am not an apple fanboy, I refused to buy an Ipod, I use Windows, My mum has an Ibook and I occasionally use that or have to help her use it, and its kind of refreshing using it when I use Windows all the time personally at home and at school.)

Writing viruses is mainly a game of the young. They even have their own communication networks and tech sites.
What they know is Windows and the programming realted thereto.
What they are learning is hte programming the soft\ware that Apple uses.
What they need is more Apple machines on the internet.
Infestations in Apple products and software has gone up rapidly, as Stephen Jobs has irritated them with his wealth and his claims that Apple is infestation free.
There will be more.
But it will take more apple products to spread... but that is obviously happening. Look at Apple MacIntosh sales... and the phenomenal spread of Apple iPhones and iPods... and finally the use of Apple laptops in the corporate and government environments.

Yeah it was pretty stupid for them to claim that Mac's are basically immune to viruses as they put it, because as soon as they become available in more homes and business' then they'll be in the exact same situation as Windows in terms of viruses.

I personally interpret Steve Jobs to be a wanker, and the Mac VS PC adds piss me off, they're ridicolous. Especially the commericial where Apple claims that it isn't a competition between them and PC, and yet it's Mac that runs slander campaigns and those anti-PC commercials - not Microsoft.

Morons.

i havent seen any of these ad's because i live in spain, iv bought a mac so i can have the best of both worlds run programs on windows and run mac programs aswell !!!

The BSD backbone of OSX, and the UNIX/Linux operating systems are inherently safer than that of Windows XP (Vista with UAC on narrows the gap). So yes, the much smaller userbase helps avoid viruses, but the larger problem is the OS itself makes it much more immune to them.

Since apparently raybay and fullmetalvegan either didn't read my post, or didn't believe me, I have brought a link to back up my thoughts. I did not know of this article before I posted, but a very simple google search turned it up.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/06/linux_vs_windows_viruses/

Further, due to the strong separation between normal users and the privileged root user, our Linux user would have to be running as root to really do any damage to the system. He could damage his /home directory, but that's about it. So the above steps now become the following: read, save, become root, give executable permissions, run. The more steps, the less likely a virus infection becomes, and certainly the less likely a catastrophically spreading virus becomes. And since Linux users are taught from the get-go to never run as root, and since Mac OS X doesn't even allow users to use the root account unless they first enable the option, it's obvious the likelihood of email-driven viruses and worms lessens on those platforms.

Unfortunately, running as root (or Administrator) is common in the Windows world. In fact, Microsoft is still engaging in this risky behavior. Windows XP, supposed Microsoft's most secure desktop operating system, automatically makes the first named user of the system an Administrator, with the power to do anything he wants to the computer. The reasons for this decision boggle the mind. With all the lost money and productivity over the last decade caused by countless Microsoft-borne viruses and worms, you'd think the company could have changed its procedures in this area, but no.

Even if the OS has been set up correctly, with an Administrator account and a non-privileged user account, things are still not copasetic. On a Windows system, programs installed by a non-Administrative user can still add DLLs and other system files that can be run at a level of permission that damages the system itself. Even worse, the collection of files on a Windows system - the operating system, the applications, and the user data - can't be kept apart from each other. Things are intermingled to a degree that makes it unlikely that they will ever be satisfactorily sorted out in any sensibly secure fashion.

The article covers some other reasons as well, but I pulled that clip because it is directly related to what I said that was dismissed for whatever reason. I get that some huge percentage of TS is Windows users, and that a lot of them despise Macs, but I'm not going to sit around and let fallacies be spread here.

The first part of the article directly relates to some of the posts in here but I don't want to quote it because you guys really just ought to check out the article for yourselves.


Now I will conceede that the article was written in 2003, but you will also note in my original post I said Vista with UAC on narrows the security gap. But many of you guys are still using XP (which was primary focus of the article) and despise Vista almost as much as you do Macs.

at first i dint actually like vista that much, it was running slow on my comp, and i dint like it, so my first thought was it must be the OS so i didnt like it, but i upgraded my comp and i put vista back on it,and i have to say i love it, i dont understand why so many people despise it the way that they do, vista is asthetically pleasing and it runs smoothly just as xp did providing you have the right hardware, now im going to mac for their design and multimedia potential, whoever doesnt like vista or like the way it is built should build an OS themselves and see if they can do a better job!!!

whoever doesnt like vista or like the way it is built should build an OS themselves and see if they can do a better job!!!So I guess only film-makers are entitled to not like a movie, only musicians are entitled to not like music albums & so forth ?

So I guess only film-makers are entitled to not like a movie, only musicians are entitled to not like music albums & so forth ?

So as a human being I have to right to criticise other human beings not other forms of life?

ok so maybe i was being a bit tight with my last comment but, it still is good, yer it does good hardware to tun it, but the same can be said for the ps2 to ps3 transition but everyone prefers the ps3

He simply means, well you go and do better than. =P It is like if a bunch of people kept paying out a movie, go make a better one then and stop whinging. =P

SNGX1275 : I never disagreed that Linux wasn't secure? =S I know it's a good, secure operating system - much more than Windows/etc.

why thank you full metal that what i meant anyway pointless argument but everyone now knows what i meant