Another reason why windows sucks

If there was the same number of hackers trying to break MacOS then people would be laughing at it too.
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I must disagree, too. Primarily, because it does not make sense: Now, windows is insecure, because so many people attempt to hack it??? You're likely to confuse cause and effect about this. I would rather say: Windows is so insecure in first place that people are tempted to hack it.

No doubt, there are more than enough unix boxes in the world to make exploiting them a highly lucrative task. (And it has been tried at large, repeatedly with success to some extend...) Still the most incredible (not to say stupid) hacks appear in the PC world: love letters of any kind, dialers, point-and-click trojans, streaming viruses - and a hundred nasty things which would simply not work under unix.

So the quoted thesis of yours, I cannot agree with, though I recognize what you are trying to express. It's a large field to discuss what social matters are relevant to computer security besides technology, e.g. intelligence and know-how of the users, their amount, the number of malicious subjects and so on... :rolleyes:
 
Following your logic that "Windows is so insecure in the firt place that people are tempted to hack it" I can still use what you said to support my point.

It is because of the temptation that drives so many hackers to research and probe Windows. Why the temptation? Because so many of the world's computers are running Windows. Forgive me for not having a source readily available, but I had read an article that discussed the need for a hetero-genious network of computer systems. It's a lot like human races, the diversity helps to stop certain germs and diseases. The same applies to computers and computer viri. Having diverse computer systems will help stop the spread of viri and worms, and it'll also reduce the target user base available to malicous attackers.

So to extend my original point, what I should also say is that if the installed user base of Macs were larger, then there would be more temptation for hackers to study and find exploits, thus MacOS would appear to have just as many flaws. Because MacOS is derived from BSD yes it does inherit the tight secure code, but it also inherits the weaknesses and as the code is changed and new things added more weaknesses may be exposed.

Beyond servers though, as you've pointed out a lot of vulnerbilities rely on user's willingness to go blindly following a link or opening an email. Again, my point is there's a larger installed base of users running Windows which makes such attacks more successful. Just for supposition, if the ratio of Windows and MacOSX users were something like 4 to 1, obviously a virus writer would aim for the Windows users while the Mac users would safely slip by. But if the odds were something like 2 to 2, the attackers has more of a choice.

It's very easy to blame Microsoft for all the problems in Windows and I don't want to come off sounding like I'm defending them, there really is no excuse for the amount of garbage in that OS.
 
You see, Lycander, there is much congruity in our points. You're arguments are of a social, human-oriented nature, while mine seek to be technical, machine-oriented. One subject, two different approches: I am more the materialist (only on this) and say: matter is priority. The thing as is makes people act in a certain way.

You are the idealist/anthropologist and state: People are so and so, they act as they are which makes things to appear in a certain way.

I believe there is a radical difference in security standards between MacOSX (respectively Unix) and Windows on the other hand. On the contrary, you do believe in the priority of appearance...

I would be grateful for the link to the article you mentioned. It is a very intelligent anthology: Biologically, genetical diversity hinders a virus from spreading across - and technically, diversity on the layer of source code does the equivalent. That is true, but it scratches a different subject.

I must remain with the opinion that security differences between Mac and Win and far far more than a matter of appearence. It is, as if you said: If there were more people living in the Netherlands, the same number of people would die in gun fights as in America -- denying that the difference between both countries lies far beyond numerical facts.
 
Wow, I've never been called a idealist/anthropologist before, usually I'm perceived as the classic computer geek with thick glasses and what not.

Well it's been a very interesting conversation we've had hasn't it? I find myself choosing to use MacOSX because I know it'll grant me some immunity from the viri worms and such that's out there. Even back in Windows I had no problem at all avoiding those headaches - smart user. But I chose to switch to OSX so that must mean that I agree with you that OSX is superior in some way than Windows.
 
Before my iMac and MacOSX, I enjoyed FreeBSD (plus Windowmaker which I yet did not like that much) on a comparably slow i386 machine, thus I had defend that. From such a perspective Windows just seems so awkward, it eventually makes me laugh; especially its users with their spiritual approach on how to influence the performance of their boxes with most irrational exercises, or their belief that hitting key-combinations several times takes them somewhere faster... :D

Just to mention a bit of that transfigured industry.

I, as well, thank for the conversation :cool:
 
Man, this probably happens cuz windows users get bored, so they hack others to fill up that extra time.
On mac, i never get bored, i always have something to do.
Mac users usually just dont bother with this dumb hacking stuff.
 
You're absolutely right Androo. That's what I bought a Mac, I got bored of Windows. Otherwise there's absolutely no other compelling reason for me to use a Mac... well the Apple Music Store was enticing too :)
 
No compelling reason to use a Mac?? Just look at the plethora of iLife software you get, right out of the box! iMovie, iTunes, iDVD, Safari... and that's just what comes with the computer. Take a step further and you have a cornucopia and a half of shareware, freeware, donationware, etc. available online, especially games from companies like Ambrosia and Freeverse. Then there's the commercial aspects: the hundreds of titles ranging from Photoshop to Protools to Lightwave.

Sure, you can get much of this on the Wintel side... but the key word here is get, since you barely get anything besides Solitaire, Paint and Explorer right out of the box.
 
I said "no other compelling reason for me to use a Mac" I should have put emphasis on ME. iLife apps are meaningless to me because well, I'm a programmer I have no life :)


Then there's the commercial aspects: the hundreds of titles ranging from Photoshop to Protools to Lightwave.

Did you not know that those commercial applications are also available for Windows too? Show me 3D Studio Max for the Mac, or something as good as Autodesk CAD software.

The whole idea of "software ready out of the box" might be appealing to you, but it doesn't to me. Why because I'm different. I like to add software at my own leisure rather than remove stuff I don't want, first thing I do when I buy a new Mac (and I've bought 2 so far) is format and reinstall in a minimalist fashion.

As pretty as Aqua may be, I prefer the interface in Windows. The striped lines in Aqua dialogs makes smaller text hard to read. I've resolved this by using a different theme, BBX Mercury. When I maximize windows, the behavior varies from application to application. I want it to always stretch to the full extent of the screen but some apps do not do this, I have to (painfully) drag the resize box to make it fit the screen. And that position doesn't always get saved so I have to redo it over and over again.

There's plenty of little nit picks I could list but I'll just end up getting flamed so I'll stop here. I'll agree with you that there are a lot of nice things about the Mac, but I just shrugg my shoulders and say "meh" to it. Ah well.
 
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