Thread: Aaagghh!! Some days I HATE technology

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

Interesting post A couple of points though... you do say that they aren't plagued by viruses and spyware because they are such a small player. While I admit that they aren't nearly as populous as the PC, this year Apple surpassed Dell in market capitalisation. As to the numbers, Apple shipped 1.327 million macs last quarter alone. I'd suggest that even though we don't see a lot of them in Aus they are pretty big players and reasonable size targets.

My research before buying mine suggested that their security was due to their bsd/linux underpinnings, as well as good software design by Apple. This means people really have to be stupid to catch what few viruses there are.

As to how they go with blowing up... well I'm pretty much sure is the same as everyone else. My point was that their OS was what makes them great.

The low market penetration helps reduce the vulnerability to viruses - for any infection to be sustained, the virus must be spread to an average of more than one other computer. But as you comment, it is partly the operating system - unix based systems are inherently more difficult to write effective viruses for, but probably the most important thing is the way that Apple has set them up - to get infected with a virus you have to really try, unlike Windows, where a lot of the default settings leave you wide open. Put all these together, and viruses for Macs are not that much of a threat.
John

Hey Captain...

Maybe I phrased my comments badly.. you are 100% right the way the MAC OS operates certainly makes it heaps more secure than a default Windows system.. naturally making it tougher for Virus writers and hackers.

And I do know that their sales currently are booming....

But the last stat I saw ( probably a year or 2 old now...) was that MAC still had less than 5% of the desktop computing market world wide...

That alone means there are infinitely more bad guys trying to screw with Windows Systems... as there are so many unsecure windows systems out there... as most users think"install norton and I'll be safe".

Any way, we seem to be filling a Land Rover forum with geek speak

Best we get back to the important stuff

Enjoy your MAC world....

Mark