more on mac viruses and quote and apple pie

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "ken harris." <kenharris () gmail com>
Date: May 21, 2005 11:48:39 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on mac viruses and quote and apple pie
Reply-To: "ken harris." <kenharris () gmail com>


Prof. Farber,

In a half-comedic/half-true attempt to bring Mr. Magda's point of view
to the real world.
!

According to this logic -- because the USA (Windows) is so popular, it
is prone to terrorist attack (see: viruses), and other sociological
downfalls (see: spyware).

If you could live your life in Iceland (Mac), where the risk of
anything happening is nill, then you should move there to avoid any
potential problem that might pop up in the USA.

.. I "dare" anyone to dispute that the USA is the worst country ever,
anywhere. The worst. But yet it is also the most popular.

Alternatively, we could work with the US Government (Microsoft), to
make the USA "a better place to live for everyone".




On 5/21/05, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: David Magda <dmagda () ee ryerson ca>
> Date: May 20, 2005 10:47:17 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] more on mac viruses and quote and apple pie
> Reply-To: David Magda <dmagda () ee ryerson ca>
>
>
> [This reply ended up being longer then I intended. Feel free to edit
> it if you feel it's too long. It's also a bit like two separate posts
> in one: my 'rant' and some pointers to articles by John Gruber.]
>
> On May 20, 2005, at 20:34, David Farber wrote:
>
>
>
> > And MACs are not exempt. Your readers who are
> > proud of the fact they run no antivirus applications, and don't
> > maintain
> > their firewalls on their MACs are victims in wait.
>
> While technically you are correct that OS X is possibly vulnerable to
> attack, the fact of the matter is that it has not been seriously
> attacked to date. So why not use a computing platform that is less of
> target? Isn't that the sane thing to do? I find it silly to go out
> and choose a course of action that will bring you pain in the future.
>
> If you have particular needs which are only met by using Microsoft
> Windows then by all means use it.  But if you can get by using a Mac
> then there's not much of a reason not to do so (especially with the
> relatively inexpensive Mac mini now available).
>
> I have a PowerBook and recently bought my sister an iMac; I
> administer Unix boxes at work. Neither Mac runs any kind of anti-
> virus software (nor do any of my Unix machines). This is not because
> I think they are invulnerable (I keep up with security updates), but
> because at this point in time I feel that the cost-benefit  of me
> purchasing anti-virus software isn't worth it. When (or if?)  threats
> for OS X emerge it will hit the news web sites very quickly, and the
> vendors will release an update to detect it. At that point a
> measurable risk will be present and it may be worth it to buy some
> software (or use ClamAV which is open-source and can run on Unix-like
> systems (including OS X)).
>
> Until then it isn't worth the money IMHO. Anti-virus programs are
> like insurance: they are a cost that will hopefully pay for itself if
> something bad happens. If the odds are low that the event will occur
> why pay the premium? If you live in Florida you protect yourself
> against hurricanes, not earthquakes. Vice versa in California.
>
> As an aside, last year John Gruber wrote about the discrepancy
> between Windows users getting various malware and the rest of the
> computing population not getting any. Worth reading (as is just about
> all of Mr. Gruber's posts):
>
>
>
> > What's remarkable is this: Crapware is a problem of epidemic
> > proportions on Windows, but it is almost completely non-existent on
> > the Mac.
> [...]
>
>
> > We all benefit from the fact that the Mac community has zero
> > tolerance for vulnerabilities. Not just zero tolerance for security
> > exploits, but zero tolerance for vulnerabilities. In fact, there is
> > zero tolerance in the Mac community for crapware of any kind.
>
> http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/broken_windows
>
> With a follow up article a couple of months later:
>
>
>
> > The reasons why are subject to argument. But you can't argue about
> > the net effect: Windows users, especially with their home
> > computers, are plagued by insidious malware; everyone else is not.
>
> http://daringfireball.net/2004/09/for_whatever_reasons
>
> And a related article on the scourge of malware through Outlook:
>
>
>
> > Microsoft's Outlook has been exploited by virus authors so
> > frequently and so effectively that I dare anyone to dispute that
> > it's the worst email client ever, anywhere. The worst. But yet it
> > is also the most popular.
>
> http://daringfireball.net/2003/08/good_times
>
>
>
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