Re: OT: Update Virus Checker

GaryM wrote:
rw <rw56_to_the_chase@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:UMyDf.3611$5E3.2023@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:


Well, it would "exempt" your computer from infection by this
particular virus, as well as by any other computer virus that's
ever existed. 


I did not take the original poster's suggestion the we all move to Apple
based purely on this single virus.

My reply was that OS X, whilst a beautiful GUI (I own 2),
has nothing that makes it less prone to socially engineered virii
and malware. Chances are the damage caused would be less due to the
underlying Unix kernel, but I prefer to think of Apple with its 4%
market share as just not worth the trouble for virus makers to
really focus on. You would see no huge outbreak because there simply aren't enough Macs. 

You are conflating two questions.

The first question is: "Are you safer from virus attacks with OS X?" Clearly, based on the record, you are. You seem to be conceding that point, attributing the effect to Apple's small market share.

The second question is: "Why are you safer?" Apple's small market share is certainly a part of the reason, but it's not the total story. Microsoft (along with Windows users) is in a sense a victim of their own success. When Microsoft engineers sit down to develop a new OS they don't start with a blank slate. Their requirements include backward compatibility with a long line of previous operating systems and applications. Much of this ancestral software was developed with virtually no concern for security, and Microsoft's design philosophy seemed to be to throw in every bell and whistle they could think of. Backward compatibility constraints become tighter and more difficult to satisfy with every new generation of OS. This has led to bloated, sclerotic software, so complicated that the consequences of "fixing" a security flaw might in fact produce new vulnerabilities. The Windows Registry, for example, is a nightmarish hack.

OS X, on the other hand, was a clean break with OS 9, and it happened relatively recently, when security was a top priority.

Another problem with Windows has been Microsoft's tendency to tightly integrate the OS and applications, in violation of good software design practice. This was done in an attempt to use their OS monopoly to destroy the competition. It's especially clear and well documented (in their antitrust case) that they did this with Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, and that no doubt has led to many of the security problems associated with those products. I'll strongly second the advice not to use Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. I use Firefox and Thunderbird and I think they're great.

--
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