Mac infected by a virus

[derby]

i think that is a disingenuous statement.
IMO, hackers dont spend time on mac bugs because its not worth their time, because of the numbers of Macs out there compared to PC's, not because the Mac OS is inherently a more secure system.

one could also postulate that osx would be a "prestige" hack that would be worth the effort just to be famous (like dvd jon).

i'm not being disingenuous here... macs aren't impenetrable. in fact, at last year's "pwn to own" competition, the mac fell first (using a vulnerability in adobe flash, iirc):

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/27/pwn-2-own-over-macbook-air-gets-seized-in-2-minutes-flat/

of course, that exploit did require user interaction.

[herm]

one could also postulate that osx would be a "prestige" hack that would be worth the effort just to be famous (like dvd jon).

i'm not being disingenuous here... macs aren't impenetrable. in fact, at last year's "pwn to own" competition, the mac fell first (using a vulnerability in adobe flash, iirc):

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/27/pwn-2-own-over-macbook-air-gets-seized-in-2-minutes-flat/

of course, that exploit did require user interaction.

fair enough. that was all i was trying to say.

most of my family are apple fan-boys, and i get tired of the sermons...

[redxblack]

i do like not having to fix my computer. in the 8 years since I switched, I've had one issue ever and rebooting fixed it. I'm on my third mac now and all of them (including the 8 yr old one) are still fully operational and running problem free.

my windows machine lasted 18 months and I had the case apart at least once a month during its "lifetime" (it was an Acer - more a hardware thing than a software thing, but then again apple doesn't sublet their OS to third party manufacturers).

[herm]

i do like not having to fix my computer. in the 8 years since I switched, I've had one issue ever and rebooting fixed it. I'm on my third mac now and all of them (including the 8 yr old one) are still fully operational and running problem free.

my windows machine lasted 18 months and I had the case apart at least once a month during its "lifetime" (it was an Acer - more a hardware thing than a software thing, but then again apple doesn't sublet their OS to third party manufacturers).

i always felt that if apple had done this, they might have taken over as the #1 OS

OTOH, then their OS would be worth the hackers time to make the beast with two backs with...

[derby]

OTOH, then their OS would be worth the hackers time to make the beast with two backs with...

it's not like there haven't been people trying to poke holes in unix for the last 40 years.

[herm]

it's not like there haven't been people trying to poke holes in unix for the last 40 years.

sure they have, but when your new virus is only going to make the beast with two backs with 10% of the computers out there, and few business systems, why spend the time?
you get a much bigger splash by going after the bigger OS