Question for all you "I" people!

[grapeman]

So in other words it is about the same for getting viruses on a PC. Those are all the same ways to get a virus and spyware as on a PC........... I guess the most important thing to take away from this is to be careful out there!

 

[ibglowin]

The difference is you don't have to anything on a PC to get a trojan or spyware installed. Just navigate to the wrong site "accidently" and your (web browser, etc.) is infected or double click on the attachment and your infected.

That doesn't happen on a Mac, the bad guys basically have to trick the user to install the spyware by getting them to fall for something like you need this video codec to view this video, download and install this software which if you do by giving the software root access to do so by entering your admin password your infected.

Same thing with the pop up that says your Mac is infected. YOU the user has to download and install the spyware by falling for an old trick that your machine is infected and you need this software to remove it which is nothing more than spyware.

The fact that only 10% of the computers are running Mac OS and you can't just take root level access of a Mac with out tricking someone into giving you that access is a big difference in the way trojans or spyware can be propagated between the two platforms.

 

[deboard]

The difference is you don't have to anything on a PC to get a trojan or spyware installed. Just navigate to the wrong site "accidently" and your (web browser, etc.) is infected or double click on the attachment and your infected.

That doesn't happen on a Mac, the bad guys basically have to trick the user to install the spyware by getting them to fall for something like you need this video codec to view this video, download and install this software which if you do by giving the software root access to do so by entering your admin password your infected.

Same thing with the pop up that says your Mac is infected. YOU the user has to download and install the spyware by falling for an old trick that your machine is infected and you need this software to remove it which is nothing more than spyware.

The fact that only 10% of the computers are running Mac OS and you can't just take root level access of a Mac with out tricking someone into giving you that access is a big difference in the way trojans or spyware can be propagated between the two platforms.

I don't want to get into a windows vs mac discussion, because truthfully I think both are terrible, insecure pieces of trash. BUT, a lot of what you say about windows above applies to windows XP, but not as much to Windows 7. Win 7 has the concept of admin access to install software, and essentially a user will have to be tricked into supplying a password to install something. This is essentially what would happen on a mac as well.

 

[ibglowin]

Agreed, I don't have the time nor energy for a lengthy debate and I know for a fact that Windows has gotten better at patching things (or rewriting) over the last few years. Lots of folks are still running XP though! Given enough time and energy any OS can be compromised.

Alrighty then!

 

[BobF]

XP can also be safe, you just have to be proactive about configuring things for security. Unfortunately this means you can't load & run with default settings and be safe. It also unnecessarily requires people to be geekier than they would otherwise need to be.

All of the systems have pros/cons -- it's not the machines that suck. It's the malware writers that suck!

 

[rawlus]

there are not very many russians writing viruses for a relatively small population of macs. if mac OS were the international corporate standard for computers, the tables would be flipped and there'd be many more viruses for macs and more effort expended to compromise macs. their relative lack of popularity is their biggest advantage against viruses.

as far as ipads and iphones go - they are more like appliances in their design than computers. they perform like a toaster - turn it on and use it. its not really the same as a desktop computer OS experience.

Personally i find android to be overall buggier from a software dev POV and from a user's POV. to me, and this is my opinion only, this is due to the fact that, like windows, Android is meant to run on a number of hardware configurations - there are a ton of manufacturers making devices that use some flavor of android - some will work with one version of the OS but not others - some will run android better than others.

this is not the case with Macs. the inherent advantage (or disadvantage depending on your POV) of Macs is their vertical integration and closed ecosystem - the hardware and software are designed to coexist from the beginning. in the case of i-devices, they are built around the OS and vice versa. its been my experience that the hardware tends to remain relevant for longer periods... people are still using 10 year old macbooks without major issues. not too many 10 year old windows laptops still able to keep up however.

You dont really see this with any other consumer devices of this nature. This makes the test-bed for the software developers relatively predictable and stable - you can ferret out more bugs in development because the device universe is known and relatively uncomplicated. unit testing and regression testing is more straightforward.

Virus threats may soon become something more to worry about on Macs. if the trend of PC users permanently switching to MACs continues.

I will agree, if you are heavily invested in windows machines, then an iphone may not be best for you - i havent found itunes to be all that reliable on windows. on mac its a different story in my experience. anecdotal as it may be, it seems like the popularity of idevices is really driving the switch from PC to Mac. Users have a strong and positive first experience with an apple product now via these idevices and then set about making larger changes in their lives and adopting the Mac platform across the board. My parents in their 70's did exactly that. got an itouch, that led to two ipad2's and a 27" imac, all happily coexisting with automatic time-machine backups, easy networking, and cross-device synching of everything from their address books and calendars to their photos, movies, books and music.