Posted on 02/04/2005 7:54:13 AM PST by SmithL
I dunno... not all operating systems' security models are created equal. Just because someone wants to write a trojan or virus doesn't mean that it will be just as easy on OS X as on Windows. In fact, from what I understand, the opposite is true.
It isn't that windows sucks, but they have so much of the market that all the hackers and virus makers go after those systems to affect the most people.
What joy would there be to go after the 4% of Mac users?
Read some of the EULA's carefully and you find language like "damages limited to five dollars or the original cost paid for the software, EVEN IF THE REMEDY FAILS ITS INTENDED PURPOSE" (my paraphrase).
Would you buy a car with that kind of Bullshit protecting the manufacturer?
To my layperson's mind, that seems like prima facie evidence of deliberate malfeasance...no, I'm not a lawyer.
(Speaking of which, can you imagine how jealous the tobacco industry's lawyers are of Microsoft? :-0 )
IMHO, Microsoft *IS* a virus.
I just know that Cray-2 and X-MP didn't have these problems when I was using them :-)
C shell and vi are just fine ;-)
And what's wrong with Fortran 77 anyway? :-)
Gibson Research Corporation
Free Downloads
by Steve Gibson
http://www.grc.com/freepopular.htm
While the above is true, that doesn't mean that even the very simple choice of using FireFox will mane you much less vulerable to being hijacked by malware than will be the case if you continue to use IE exclusively.
Using Linux or OSX will reduce your vulnerability even more because both operating systems were designed with a more secure OS archetecture, but that is a jump a lot of people aren't willing to make.
When I do, Windows is DOOMED! DOOMED I TELL YOU!
Seriously, if someone presents a viable alternate that works as well as Firefox does, I'll consider it.
But for all I do, no one has yet.
Bump for later.
I've been using computers for a long time, and was actually a systems administrator long before I'd seen my first PC.
I can't for the life of me understand what the attraction ms-windows has for some people, considering the entire interface is designed around the paradign of only doing one thing at a time.
I fully utilize 8 separate desktops on my Linux box. Each of my main programs have a window that they run in, and they are always right there, on their own uncluttered desktop space with any asociated programs. Using windows reminds me a lot of living in a one-room "efficiency" apartment. Everything is in the same "space", and it gets cluttered very quickly.
I just don't find myself to be nearly as productive running ms-windows as I do using Unix. To each his own though. I suppose that asking some people to multitask is asking bit much.
Excellent! Stolen!
Bump.
bttt
I think SO stands for Significant Other.
read: not married.
Same here. I use Outlook for my e-mail....love it....and up until recently, used IE exclusively. As long as you run a firewall and a good AV, you should never have a problem.
Exactly. MS total market domination and their amazing ability to immunize themselves from the repercussions of defective software gives them a pass that no other manufacturer or service provider is afforded.
Even more frustrating is the fact that many of these 'Security Holes' are really conduits engineered into the software (In conjunction with the Chip Manufacturers such as Intel & AMD I might add) that allow for the monitoring of usage and other user activities using Ports not clearly revealed to the average user. Vendors like Doubleclick, Adclick and others use these alternative access points as do other software vendors to compile statistics and develop use patterns. Somewhere in the EULA the User consents to this access but is left with virtually no way of monitoring it or otherwise controlling the flow of information back and forth from their computer or network.
Unfortunately these access points are also well known to Hackers and they use them for more damaging activities. Although I don't have direct knowledge, I strongly suspect that the regular 'Security Patches' are in large part just relatively minor changes to the operating system to throw the Hackers off for awhile and, once they've been figured out and problems are growing, MS issues another 'Patch'. And so on and so on.
The bottom line is, in MS's world, the User is simply along for the ride and is given no choice in these very important but ell concealed issues. MS and it's cohorts have a take it or leave it strategy that is enforced by the relative absence of any alternative for the User, something that is now changing and something that will hopefully force MS to clean up it's act.
Face it; if they had half a brain they wouldn't be using a Gatesbox.
My company has it also. It sucks bigtime along with Peoplesoft and OnBase!
Notes is weired -- each new version is really a NEW version, you have to relearn where everythign is located!!!!
And why do these 4% not realize that they are missing out on so many software programs that are available only for the PC?
MS has a difficult problem. First, they are the target, because they're the biggest. Second, Their legacy is what makes them dominant. Want a computer that will run a 1987 database? With Windows, you can probably make it work. Same with a 1991 dot matrix printer. However, legacy support makes it more difficult to change certain things, and Windows was developed before anybody, including programmers thought that there would be nearly as many hacks as there are. One of the techies at my college told nearly the same story, except he said he had installed XP and hooked up to the internet to install the patches, and was probed and infected before he could get the patches installed. That's some aggressive virus writing. FWIW, I'm still on 98 at work, and use Norton, firewall, Adaware, and Firefox, and have only gotten one virus (Ethan Fromme Word macro hack). The classroom computer, which is used by many students had over 90 trojans, adwares and spywares on it.
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