Yes, Macs can get malware, if you click directly on the “omg no, I don’t want malware, please take my money” button. Otherwise I’ve never had to perform any maintenance like I do on a PC (and I do watch quite a bit of porn, tyvm :p)
My roommate’s Linux box has turned me off of that OS forever. If Ubuntu is considered a user-friendly distro, I’d hate to see what the other ones look like, because each time she needs me to fix a problem for her, it’s always a train wreck of me googling and typing things I only barely understand into the Terminal. Even minor things like “oh no! My computer crashed and now my internet icon at the top right has gone away and I don’t know how to get it back!”
Apparently her clock disappeared from up there /months/ ago, she couldn’t figure it out, and ignored it. And it was a few hours of work before we were able to get her computer to recognize the NAS.
Anyway, conclusion: if you set up the requisite scanning tools on Windows, and buy a machine that’s actually beefy enough to run them and Windows at the same time, along with whatever else you’re trying to do, that direction works. I prefer Mac (obviously), but if I were shopping in the Windows market, would probably spend just as much on a similar laptop. People always bring up the price argument, and compare a $600 cheap plastic box with a crappy screen against OMG THIS MACBOOK PRO IS OVER $2000!
Ask yourself this: “Does it seem crazy that we’ve gotten to the point where this is an acceptable behavior?”
Honestly, I think the Tech industry is CHOCK FULL of Marketers and Middle Managers and Software Coders, but only Apple ever hires people to USE their stuff.
Install. Wait. Reboot. Update. Reboot. Update. Reboot. Update. Reboot. THEN Install application. Wait…did I spend all this money on a computer for ME to USE it, or did I buy it so that the Virus Scanner can suck every available cycle dry?
Linux is a good cheap-now solution, right up until you get to run ‘sudo install apt-get build essential’ and compile modules for your hardware.
It CAN run well, it often DOES run well, it is NOT as friendly as the alternatives.
Macs are just as susceptable to malware, but I believe the infection rate is lower in practise. Due to the smaller user base, more malware and virus authors target the PC. Macs also require patching, both of the OS and web browser.
Windows update works very well these days. I’ve had exactly one problem with it in many years of use, on several PCs at home and work. After a re-install, simply keep running it until you run out of updates to install. It’s time-consuming, but it keeps you protected as various security problems are identified and fixed.
I installed parallels on my Mac. It offered to install Kaspersky for a 6 month free trial. It scanned my VM, then continued to scan my Mac, as I’d shared up the root filesystem to transfer files. and it found a malicious bit of software!
Now, I’ve had this computer with me to DEFCON, considered to have The Most Dangerous Network known to man, as that’s where the folks go to demonstrate their cred, and learn hacking techniques that will be upcoming in the following months.
It was a bluetooth dropper. It got placed on my computer because I had Bluetooth enabled while I was there, and someone got within range, and dropped the file on my system.
Only it didn’t DO anything.
Infection on the Mac STILL requires the malware CONVINCE the user to ACT.
So, one harmless, unused file, but it IS considered malware, and I DID see it on a Mac. That’s pretty much the extent of what I’ve seen, and I had to go to the worst possible place in the world, computer-wise, to get it.
I’ve seen it on two different laptops, both in the 1.5 GHz range. Both played youtube videos much more smoothly under windows. Laptops generally do not have a good GPU.
The computer I am using now (3 GHz P4) plays youtube videos reasonably smoothly. I wouldn’t say there is any noticeable stuttering, but the videos just don’t quite look as good to my eye, which I’m guessing is a slightly lower frame rate. This machine also does not have what I would call a good GPU. For a faster machine than this it probably wouldn’t be an issue, even with a crappy GPU.
Sometimes at work, trying to decide which size hammer to use on the damn thing, I so wish everything was made by Microsoft.
At home, on the other hand…
I’m curious and non-partisan with this question: Do you write for a particular kind of client? Most of the problems I have are with users having Firefox with websites designed for IE. I’ve seen some sites that declare they are made for Firefox, but not at work. I wonder if most business and government sites encountered are written for IE.
And the problem occurs less and less.
Thanks!
That is a big problem. Chromium, the open source version of Google’s browser, has a built-in flash which is better. I’ve got a little 1.66Ghz netbook with just built-in graphics and it can’t play BBC iPlayer smoothly in Firefox, only in Chromium. Other videos no problem.
Ironically, the opposite is true: They’re on the rise because users think their machines are not invulnerable. All of the Mac malware actually found in the wild takes the same form: A popup ad on a webpage says something like “Your computer is infected; download and run our security software to fix it”. Someone who is convinced that Macs can’t get malware just ignores the ad, and continues to be uninfected. Someone who thinks that all computers are vulnerable, though, might believe the popup, and proceed to download the malware, give it their administrator password in the installation, and run it themselves, at which point, the prophecy is self-fulfilled, and now their Mac does have malware on it.
And what’s really ironic is that you mostly hear about these malwares from Linux apologists, who go on to say that Mac malware is rare only because of the small target size, and that things like this are reasons folks should use Linux instead. Except that an attack like that would work just as well against Linux as it would against a Mac, or indeed any other complete operating system-- The only systems that would be safe would be things like iOS, where you can only install and run apps that come from a single proprietary source.
Genuine viruses on the Mac are possible but vanishingly rare. Malware like we’re discussing here, that gets installed when the user is tricked into installing it, is a growing problem. It’s only in the last couple years that OSX market share cracked double digits. Historically, it hasn’t been worth the effort to write Mac malware - but that’s changing as Macs become more common.
Speaking of market share, it wasn’t that long ago that IE had 95% of the users cornered. Nowadays, it’s still over 50%, with Firefox at around 20% and Chrome at around 10%. In some ways, life was actually easier when one browser ruled them all, because a developer could be reasonably certain that his page would display correctly. (And of ultimately, of course, life was far worse for everyone, because we’re talking about IE 6 & 7).
Anyway, most business and government offices continue to use IE, and usually, older versions of IE, because they don’t update as often and because they want everyone in the company to use the same software. Compounding the problem is that corporate and government websites don’t get updated as often to use newer browsers because that would cost money and time.
My answer to people who visit websites that don’t display correctly in Firefox is to tell them not to shop from people who can’t run a decent website.
Aside: It’s not market share that’s relevant here, but installed base. Apple’s installed base is larger than its market share, since Mac owners tend to keep their machines for longer before replacing them than PC users.
No, it does not seem crazy to me. It’s a lot better than the situation we used to have, which was that bugs and security holes didn’t get fixed until we actively sought out and downloaded a patch to install.
By the way, for people who don’t want to deal with stuff like that, the Chromebook seems like a promising new option. It performs updates in the background without user intervention, for example.
Yes, me too.
But if students have to take a test, or teachers have to report grades, we have to go with IE.
Interestingly enough, there was a state web tool that required that we not upgrade to the latest version of IE.
If I didn’t have to occasionally administrate cisco stuff, I wouldn’t have to have a windows 7 VM and IE…the biggest networking company on the planet and they code specifically to one browser.
I guess I don’t see what’s “not right” about the system. And how exactly are Macs different? If I remember correctly, the Macbook I used to have had a similar auto-update system, as does my father’s iMac.
I use Google Docs and Google Mail every day, and have no major complaints. Google Docs is not as feature-rich as Microsoft Office, but the convenience often outweighs it.
We got a grant for Cisco switches and a router. I wasn’t running the joint then. They made our star LAN into a daisy chain. One fails every year and a whole series of buildings goes down. I replaced them with HP, and though I’m not running things again, I’ve convinced them to at least replace as fail with HP.
Cisco costs thousands of dollars and has a three month warranty. HP costs hundreds of dollars and has a life time warranty. I had a sixteen port switch fail, and called them. The lady said, “I’m sorry Sir, all I have now are 32 port switches. Will that be all right?”
I said, “Well, gee, I guess so.”
