iamroot said:
Its practically proven that Macs are more stable than Windows-based systems. How often do u see a trojan horse for a mac?
intrestingly enough this exact issue has come up on another forum.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04864
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/mac.simpsons@mm.html
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2004/tc2004025_4265_tc056.htm
These are links to places the wil give information about worms and other virii for macs.
The very nature of programming is that it will be exploitable. How many people here can write programs in C?
how many of you use scanf to take information from the keyboard?
(chances are if you use C you'll use scanf for simple inputs)
how many people using scanf check the result of the function, flush out the buffers, and make sure the correct input type is obtained etc?
probably not many, - incidentaly I'm guilty too, if I write something for myself I generally make it quickly, the only time I've ever made comprehensive 'unbreakable' programs was when I was being assesed according to security criteria whilst doing assignments at uni.
before you know it, your ten minute software solution is a usefull tool, infact it's so usefull that other people have implemented it, then you realise, it's riddled with bugs, and really needs re-developing with security in mind. - for a lot of people this isn't an option.
Linux wins out over windows in this respect because a lot of development is done by enthusiasts, - which aren't paid, wheras with windows, if you've paid someone to develop a piece of sftware you don't want to have to pay twice to have someone do it again.
Instead windows takes the view that it will fix it's software afterwards.
in this respect Linux and Mac couldnever compete on the same level as windows, MAC is big, but support is not big enough or strong enough to cope with the kind of things windows has to.
the same for linux, an unpaid volenteer comunity cannot be expected to respond as quickly as a paid development team - (that is when the customer is paying). And as such Linux also couldn't compete on the same level as windows.
(long post, or the second part was, but I was trying to make a point)