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<blockquote data-quote="cwa107" data-source="post: 713810" data-attributes="member: 24098"><p>Well, there are quite a number of things that Apple has done well with OS X. One thing in particular is that the user is never an administrator. Even when your account is called "administrator", you never have the same kind of authority that an administrator would have in Windows (which was the default role of users up until Vista). With that being the case, even if your machine was infected with a virus, it could never do any damage to the underlying Operating System, its effects would be limited to your home folder.</p><p></p><p>Microsoft implemented something similar in Vista, called "User Account Control". The problem is that most Windows applications expect to have administrator-level access, since Windows traditionally always gave its users that. So, it becomes very intrusive as whenever an application tries to do something to the operating system, the user is constantly prompted to click "allow" or "deny". This happens so frequently in fact, that people end up just getting in the habit of clicking "allow" instead of bothering to try to understand why they're being asked.</p><p></p><p>By contrast, OS X being based on UNIX, has always been this way. So, applications are normally pretty well behaved and don't require administrator access. It should be pretty rare that you're asked to elevate your permissions (i.e. prompted for your password). In fact, it's so uncommon that it should get your attention and make you think "why am I being asked for my password". This protection mechanism is probably one of the reasons that no real viruses have been released for the Mac. </p><p></p><p>A more thorough explanation (if you're so inclined), is available here:</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.macobserver.com/article/2007/04/10.9.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.macobserver.com/article/2007/04/10.9.shtml</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cwa107, post: 713810, member: 24098"] Well, there are quite a number of things that Apple has done well with OS X. One thing in particular is that the user is never an administrator. Even when your account is called "administrator", you never have the same kind of authority that an administrator would have in Windows (which was the default role of users up until Vista). With that being the case, even if your machine was infected with a virus, it could never do any damage to the underlying Operating System, its effects would be limited to your home folder. Microsoft implemented something similar in Vista, called "User Account Control". The problem is that most Windows applications expect to have administrator-level access, since Windows traditionally always gave its users that. So, it becomes very intrusive as whenever an application tries to do something to the operating system, the user is constantly prompted to click "allow" or "deny". This happens so frequently in fact, that people end up just getting in the habit of clicking "allow" instead of bothering to try to understand why they're being asked. By contrast, OS X being based on UNIX, has always been this way. So, applications are normally pretty well behaved and don't require administrator access. It should be pretty rare that you're asked to elevate your permissions (i.e. prompted for your password). In fact, it's so uncommon that it should get your attention and make you think "why am I being asked for my password". This protection mechanism is probably one of the reasons that no real viruses have been released for the Mac. A more thorough explanation (if you're so inclined), is available here: [url]http://www.macobserver.com/article/2007/04/10.9.shtml[/url] [/QUOTE]
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