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I'm getting tired of people who obviously have no idea what a virus is, and how they propagate themselves to other users.
Viruses spread like wild-fire on Windows because there are hundreds of bugs and methods in the OS for them to do so.
These methods and bugs simply do not exist in Mac OS X. It's nothing to do with Mac OS X being less popular - it just can't be done.
No program can install itself on a Mac without the user knowing and typing in thier admin password. It is VERY easy for a program to do the same on Windows without the user even realizing.
Trojan horses on the Mac and PC are exactly the same however. They rely on the user being tricked into downloading and running a program. In this respect Windows and Mac OS are as secure as the person using it.
However, as already stated - programs cannot install themselves on a Mac without the user knowing about it. And at the end of the day, if you're stupid enough to allow unknown programs from untrusted sources to be installed on your computer (whether Mac or PC), in my opinion you deserve whatever consequences that may bring.
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Posted: 2006-07-06 11:47:57
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@jools64 you said "Computers can do more than just play games - thats what PS2 & Xbox are for."
As an avid gamer, 360 and ps2 games don't compare with pc games. As for the intel macs, yeah, they play all games so long as you install windows.
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Posted: 2006-07-06 11:49:59
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Oh come on you can't be sure at 100% that your mac is safe even if it has those über protections, stop giving false advertising.
Most infections are because normal jon doe don't understand it's computer and accept whatever he sees on his screen from strangers, same for Apple but the
Now to be honest, there are holes in the OS but not hundreds
most of them are patched anyway and a good antivirus should handle the threat before. Again, I only run an antivirus ...
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Posted: 2006-07-06 12:16:57
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Your right, no-one can ever be 100% safe, and I never suggested they could either.
However, Mac OS X has now been out for over 5 years, and in all that time not a single self-replicating virus has ever been produced.
A couple of proof-of-concept trojans were made earlier this year, but were never released in to the wild, and the security holes that they exploited were quickly closed.
To be honest, I'm quite surprised that the hacker community hasn't risen to the challenge of producing a Mac virus, just to wipe the smug smile off our faces!
But, until then, I'm not losing any sleep. I don't install software from untrustworthy sources, and I know that the second a Mac virus/trojan is discovered every news site on the net will cover it.
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Posted: 2006-07-06 12:26:12
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In the interests of fairness, true viruses that can infect and spread without the user installing them or knowing about it are now very rare in windows XP because most of the biggest security holes were patched in Service Pack 2. There are still a few out there, but they don't cause half as much damage as they used to.
Most malware nowadays is in the form of worms and trojans, which require the user to run an executable or script to install them. Stay away from unsolicited email attachments and dodgy freebies and you'll be fine!
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Posted: 2006-07-06 12:36:15
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@ Jools...
Some great answers there, a bit rude to me too but in-whole made me laugh, nice one!
And remember that was all IMO (In my opinion).
I was simply saying why I personally couldn't have a Mac, not dictating why others couldn't, conversation yeah.
Well sorry if my post angered or upset you mate.
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Posted: 2006-07-06 13:07:26
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one one thing that annoys me is when people say 2 things:
1 - macs cant play games, which they can and even play windows game when xp is installed (one thing a normal pc cannot do yet)
2 - Pcs are faster then macs, not many of them are, if you look at the apple mac laptops they are very competitive and one of the fastet on the market
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Posted: 2006-07-06 14:17:52
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@Xugaa
I wasn't intending to be rude towards you - just a little
facetious!!
And you didn't anger me at all - I just feel I should correct inaccuracies. There's a lot of myths about the Mac that maybe were true 10 years ago, but people still believe them.
I know of quite a few people here on Esato that have switched to the Mac in the past year or so, some of whom 'hated' the Mac before trying it (naming no FatReg's) and now who are more Mac 'fanboy'-ish than me (*cough*Luke?!).
Most people just need the chance to try the Mac properly before realizing what they're missing. Then most wouldn't consider going back.
Cheers!
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Posted: 2006-07-06 14:49:51
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@Jools: Quite true!! I dont know if you remember the rather heated debate you had with me a couple of months ago
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However I have now been using a MacBook for the last 3 months or so, and now I understand why mac's are preffered in many computing circles. My macbook played doom 3 with most of the eye candy turned on straight out of the box!!! So gaming is pretty good on Mac Hardware. On the other hand my vaio is irreplacable for my work. A lot of software that i need to use for my work is PC only, unfortunately.
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Posted: 2006-07-06 16:05:10
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When you are updating/customising a Mac's specs eg. graphics, ram, processor etc, do you need to buy Mac specific hardware or can you use normal graphics cards and ram etc? Easy to do yourself like with a PC?
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Posted: 2006-07-06 16:14:02
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