bondipom

You can live with your head in the sand for the moment but Macs are vulnerable and there is av software available.

The main reason for the lack of viruses is the great anti microsoft sentiment in the hacking community. If Apple start annoying their users then you will find viruses will start flying around Mac users who think they don't have to update their machines and use av software.

Mac users are very loyal and impartiality is impossible to get from them.

Mac OS also needs updating just like any other OS.

I have nothing against Macs but beware misleading of info like that above.

welshpom

Indeed there is av software available for Mac OSX, and do you know what it does ?, it filters out windoze viruses in emails so that you don't pass them on. They are a waste of money.

The low hanging fruit argument has some merrit, however the main reason for the lack of viruses is that the networking code comes from a stable, tried and tested, open source unix (FreeBSD) that has been open for scrutinisation by security experts for over a decade.

The reason there are so many viruses for Windoze is that the code is just sloppy and insecure. MS don't like releasing the code because it's an embarrassment to them, it's bloatware and riddled with vulnerabilities that rely on security through obscurity to remain unexploited.

bondipom

Are you going to tell me OS X has no security vulnerabilities and that X windows is lite ware. The Open Source argument is strong and I support 600 linux machines. I am also not going to ignore the of updates required in the mistaken belief no one is going to try to hack me.

MS has its problems, which the media jumps straight onto and quite right. You didn't hear on the Sydney Morning Herald that openSSH and Sendmail have 2 new vulnerabilities that if exploited could give root access.

The benefit of MS is it is a known technology that is easy for mum and dad users with the right guidance. MS support people are also cheaper.

I would also say that if the same effort that goes into windows hacking went into hacking unix variants then non updated machines would be as vulnerable as any windows PC.

Unix/linux/BSD users tend to know what they are doing and update regularly. Would the same happen with mum and dad users?

welshpom

When vulnerabilities appear, I fix the problem, not the symptom, i.e. I'll apply fixes to stop the problem rather than look for a virus checker to protect me.

OSX and other unixes have and will have vulnerabilites, and they get fixed pretty quickly, almost always long before any malicious exploit is developed.

X-windows isn't my problem. OSX uses a proprietry system called Aqua. X-windows is bundled, but 99% of OSX users have no use for it.

Heard it. Doesn't affect 99% of OSX users. Sendmail and SSH are off by default. Anyone savvy enough to use them is savvy enough to patch them. Apple have a good track record in releasing security patches quickly for ssh and sendmail.

OSX has a self-updating system that pushes out fixes. Windows is supposed to offer something similar but MS has (I'm led to believe) abused the system by promoting their latest crapola resulting in most people disabling the self-updating mechanism because it's spam-like.

The bottom line is that Windoze is poorly written, OSX and unix are much more trustworthy.

Anyway, that's my last word on this off-topic discussion.

bondipom

It is a huge and complex debate that could go on for years.