John, nobody is bashing anyone. Calm down. We are just discussing the
merits of one OS over another. They are just tools/machines. Clearly
virus and spyware are more prevalent on the Windows OS thatn elswhere
PRECISELY because of the design of that OS. To date there have been
Zero, thats right a 0 viruses on Mac OSX for example. Your "security
through obscurity" explaination for this is just a sign of how much
some poeple seem to be in denial about this. I use both Windows and OSX
for work and play, and it doesnt take a genius to realise that there is
a big difference in quality between the two. If an 18 year old can sit
in his bedroom and write a virus capable of spreading to millions of
Windows PCs in a matter of minutes doesnt that raise your suspiicion
about the secirity of that OS at all? Arent you just a bit concerned?
Antonio
a myth to explain why that is the case
On 17 May 2004, at 20:39, John Francis wrote:
Thats right, viruses and spyware are different, but are both examples
of the substandard quality evident in the Windows OS, which is where
my
contribution to this thread began.
Antonio
Do you think we could take the mindless Microsoft bashing somewhere
else,
please?
The main reasons why viruses and spyware are more prevalent on Windows
is not because of any underlying inferiority of the OS (the NT-based
OSes are at least as secure as Linux or OS-X in that regard): rather,
it's because most of the virus and adware writers target the Windows
platform because it is where most of the payback can be found. It's
not worth attacking the small Mac part of the marketplace, nor Linux.
The main weakness come with the applications. And that's because the
inherent design of the protocols underlying the web, email, etc. were
crafted in the days before trusting your neighbour became impossible.
Viruses, spyware, etc. propagate in such an environment, just as spam
does. Why? Because it's not easy to set up a secure system. And
as the marketplace seems to value connectivity and flashy graphics
more than security, that's where the development effort is going.
It's just as hard to run a secure Linux box as it is to run a secure
Windows box (possibly even harder; there are less tools available).
In fact many of the compromised email servers on the net are Linux
systems; sendmail buffer overrun attacks aren't aimed at Windows.
The biggest weakness in the whole setup is the stupidity of users.
That wouldn't change, even if everybody switched to Linux overnight.
People would *still* download Trojan Horse programs disguised as
pornography, and they'd still click on virus-laden email links.
