Pardon me for a minute here, I need to go on a rant. :)
Ya know, I REALLY don't give a damn if Apple, or Microsoft, or Linus, issues patches for 2 or 20 or 200 vulnerabilities.
Software has bugs and flaws and mistakes. Most get trapped and fixed before release, but a great number remain, and only get found and fixed later. THIS IS LIFE IN SOFTWARE.
Finding (and fixing) more flaws can mean the software was buggier, OR IT CAN MEAN THE TESTING WAS MORE THOROUGH. It works both ways.
I REALLY, REALLY wish people would focus on the important things, rather than these crap competitive contests about how many seconds it takes to run a scripted exploit (see Charlie Miller), or how many vulnerabilities were found and fixed (like this article or similar ones about Windows).
Excuse me, but it's just bullshit. It does not in fact mean diddly-squat about the ACTUAL security of the system. What matters is whether there are exploits, and whether bad guys are using them. Almost all of those exploits now target the USER, not the OS itself, and are largely independent of which OS the user is on!
And the fact is, all three major systems (Windows, OS-X, Linux) have gotten to the point where the USER is by far the weakest link. Not the inherent properties of the OS.
In my opinion, Windows as of Win7 has joined the other two in robustness, and the inherent weaknesses of the OSes are now down in the noise. What matters is getting the users to wise up and stop allowing trojans and similar malware onto their systems.
The competitive Windows vs. OS-X vs. Linux battles for "which operating system is more secure" have become irrelevant. And -SO- tiresome.
[End Rant]
Thanks for listening. :)
What's the deal, then, about upgrading from Win XP Pro to Win7? Is it a heroic task to get Turbotax to operate under 7 when you have legacy files from XP to deal with? Last I heard, you almost had to upgrade to Vista first . . .And is the sys overhead worse on 7 than on XP? Considering that you could presumably get away from using ZoneAlarm with 7?
I hate antivirus software, almost as much as I hate viruses . . .(My inquiry is for a relative; I myself am using an iMac . . .)
Great rant... I've been trying to get WindowsXP users to switch to Windows 7 for some time now... It is a GOOD OS... safe and secure... if a little quirky. But I agree with you. I would almost even feel pretty safe running it naked on the Internet like you can OSX.
Ok, now you’re talking about me... ;)