MadSkillzMan said:
i cant see how you guys can go yay long without these issues. We've taken brand new hardware, installed XP, BEHIND a firewall, and after 3 or 4 projects, we have to reformat.
A few months back, i got 9 different calls from all over ohio, some slew of viri went NUTS all over. I was asleep. I woke up, the family computer wouldnt boot. as i removed the HDD to copy files, i forgot my bros dual CPU rig was on the internet...that went down.
I watched all kinds of .exe's fill up my macs desktop, i just laughed at that. friends from colleges, my mom even who works at the federal resesrve bank of cleveland called home to ask w t f.
In her place they have dells. They decided to lay off all the IT people, becuase the dells break down so often, or windows needs some tinkering, its actually CHEAPER to go to dell, buy new ones and trade in the old ones, than employ a small team of IT people to maintain them.
Im surprised, usually on forums about in depth PC stuff, windows is crapped on nonstop, in favor for linux/BSD and lately OSX..though i get tuanted for being the only mac user... and at an OSX forum i got people sticking up for XP? thats complete irony lol.
there isnt a bad thing i can say about my mac except im still broke, but its worth it. Its been the most enjoyable computer experience within the 8 years ive worked on computers. OS7/8/9 scared me away, OSX, and the great hardware integration brought me back.
What in-depth PC forums are these?
People still don’t get it? It doesn't matter what people say about XP in Linux forums, or what they say about XP in OS X forums.
And I've read what people say about security when it comes to OS X in XP on the Slashdot blogs/forums. They are always lengthy debates, but in the end, it always comes down to marketshare. People could argue it is harder to code a virus for OS X, people could say OS X is more secure because r00t is disabled by default, but, in all honesty, no one will ever really know until OSX's market share reaches similar a parity to Microsoft's.
Because what is security nowadays? Well I once read a great quote that went something like this: "Security is the 'art' of protecting people against themselves." Interesting concept, and it really makes sense. That being said, Microsoft clearly has a more difficult problem on its hands than Apple:
1. Anyone remotely smart enough to program would undoubtedly understand that coding a virus for Microsoft would do an infinitely larger amount of damage on a broad user scale, than if they decided to target OS X. That’s just logic - Should I go after the OS with 2% market share, or the OS with 90% market share? Hmmmm...
2. Since Windows IS the most popular OS, that means they pull in a significantly larger portion of new kids on the block. These are the people that will instantaneously download an executable that claims to be a "Picture of Britney Spears naked holding a M16 Assault Rifle" - which of course, ends up NOT being a picture of Britney Spears naked with a gun, but a virus that sends e-mails to all of his other brilliant friends claiming to be a picture of Anna Kournikova naked with a machete. After the virus finishes sending e-mails it reformats their computer. Hilariously enough, these people are generally the same people that blame Windows and Microsoft.
3. The nature of competition - everyone wants to see the big dog go down. Everyone who doesn't live in New York, hate the Yankees. Everyone who doesn't live in Boston, hate the Patriots. Everyone who doesn't in LA, hate LA. Everyone who doesn't live in the US, hate the US. I'm speaking in exaggerated generalities obviously - not EVERYONE feels that way... But I'm sure you know what I'm getting at.
Today, there is NO OS protecting users against themselves. A user really can install anything they want, when they want. Microsoft could implement nasty user-end mechanisms that protect users from their own stupidity, but that would just **** people off... even the stupid people!
- Linus Torvalds (Creator of Linux)