Quote:
Originally Posted by wejones
If the market share gets up much higher though, the hackers will start going after Macs. At the current levels, it isn't worth their effort.  |
OK, that may be true to some extent, but there is more to the theory (called Security through Obscurity).
Remember, OSX is based on BSD Unix, as a matter of fact, OSX is one of the few Unix Distros on the market to have been certified as an official Unix 03 Certified OS.
Unix is MUCH more secure than Windows. Viruses and Malware are few and far in between and a high percentage of the world's servers are UNIX (or Linux) based. If you want to install a piece of software on OSX, you must enter your username and password, and you may only do this if ROOT has given you permission to do so.
In addition, the latest release of OSX Leopard has additional security features namely, App Layer firewall, App Signing, Sandboxes, Secure Guest Accounting, and Library Randomization.
So while I am not so naive to say that Macs will never suffer from Malware, it is obvious to me that they will never suffer the fate as Windows. The system is simply better, more thought out, and much more secure. Since Apple controls hardware and software, the system does indeed just work. I have never in almost 2 years (and 4 different macs and an iPhone now) had OSX Crash (although some 3rd party software has, namely Firefox, - the OS itself never has)... Ditto for my wife and 3 kids who have also switched.
I spent years building my own systems, fighting malware, and looking for device drivers. No more...
Different strokes for different folks Bill. It's all about what works for you. In my case, I have to put up with Windows 8 Hours a day and it's nice to come home and relax in from of my computers with trouble free "computing" here in the shack.