MOTM

> >There are less viruses written for Macs,
> Actually, I haven't seen a single new Mac *virus* in quite a few years.

http://www.macmerc.com/news/archives/1335

But it underscores my point, apps are what cause undue risk to the system,
not the underlying OS itself.

> doubt that any of the old ones even run in OS 8/9/10. Macro viruses running
> in something like Excel don't count--they're platform independent and
> generally less malicious. If like me you don't use Excel then it's a
> non-issue.

Same deal with Outlook/Express and IE. Don't use them, no virus, no
trojan, no worm. ;-)

> >but you still can do the similar
> >stupid things on OSX as you can on Windows and get yourself in trouble.
> Well, computers make it easy to do stupid things in general. But in any
> variant of unix you have go the extra mile and do something even stupider
> to let loose this sort of mischief.

Not necessarily... the default accounts in OSX (at least 10.2) are su.
Whoops. Same problem that the default user accounts for Windows has. ;-(

> >OSX Doesn't have the prevalency that Windows does, and you can bet if it
> >did it'd have as many problems.
> Not exactly. Up until OS X all versions of the Mac OS were permission-less
> and essentially running in "root" mode all the time. This is NOT the case
> with OS X as it's based on BSD unix and properly locked-down by default.

I run OSX 10.2 on a G4 tower, and the default user account it asks me to
create is root. Whoops. ;-(

> The same cannot be said of Windows and its sundry apps although they're
> finally moving in that direction. It's also extremely unlikely that OS X is
> going to become remotely as big a target as Windows/IE/Outlook any time
> soon.

Because it's a smaller marketshare (less than 4% vs. 90%). If I were a
virus writer, I wouldn't target such a small segment, either.

> M$ has become the primary target for three reasons:
>
> 1. largest user base
> 2. insecure by design

That's conjecture. The problems that people complain about are IE/Outlook
related. They are not OS related.

> 3. some people dislike Micro$oft

4. Outlook/IE sucks. ;-)

> If you buy a Mac tomorrow you will eliminate about 99% of all possibility
> of infection and the horrors that go with it.

Until people are falsely roped into believing that the operating
system/platform itself is to blame for something the apps are to blame.
I've only seen one OS level update from MS in 1.5 years, but I've got *7*
installed on my G4 in the past year that are all OS related. But it
doesn't make press because MS is under the microscope, and it's fun to
bash the big guy. ;-)

> >Someone suggested using Mozilla - good choice. And ditch
> >IE/Outlook/Outlook express.
> Agreed, with one catch--those web sites that ONLY work with IE, such as my
> bank. That's the only reason why IE is on this machine.

In the case where you're forced to use IE, just crank the security up all
the way, and give it full permission to that page if it prevents access.

I'd switch completely over to Mozilla if only it could import cookies.
I use Windows for sequencing/software development, my Mac for some
sequencing/software development, and my FreeBSD box for everything
internet related:

[SYNTHCOM->nb: 1001] w
 7:21PM  up 271 days,  1:40, 3 users, load averages: 0.01, 0.02, 0.00

;-)

-->Neil

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neil Bradley             "Your mistletoe is no match for my T.O.W. missile!"
Synthcom Systems, Inc.   - Santabot - Futurama
ICQ #29402898