James Murphy said:
might have been funny if it made any sense. Unix programming nerds take the mac OS very seriously... they just don't seem to be the the smarmy little jack-ass types that think it's funny to write viruses... it's also kind of a "code of ethics" among mac programmers, neophytes and masters alike. anyway, best drop it before the "OT Police" catch wind of this little side-bar
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Big rambling ahoy!
I have to disagree here with you James, especially because in my 'previous life phase', I've been related to the virus scene. Believe it or not, there's a general misunderstanding about who gets the fault: if the virus makers, the software programmers, the antivirus programmers or the users themselves. I've had this discussion with other people about the OSX running on Windows, recently.
First off: in 80-90%, the virus programmers don't unleash their virus to the large scale. They make it to excel their knowledge and egocentricly to excel the knowledge of said 'Programming Masters'. Most virus programmers have just one intention: Surpass the defensive mechanisms: Be it the flaws of the operating system, of a given application, an antivirus, a security mechanism, whatever their goal is. It's pretty much like the death metal scene, who just want to reach the most speedy and aggressive status/what ever.
All the antivirus programmers were virus programmers in their previous life phases, as well. Who better to protect you from virus than someone who knows the general direction of one? Of course, not all virus are generic in todays world of computers, although you don't see new types of virus on a daily basis, because the majority of virus programmers just don't try to go beyond what's already known, but there's quite a few top programmers who do research and actually come up with new types of viruses.
Why Mac (and UNIX) is least affected by spyware and virus is because there's a bigger number of Windows/PC users than Mac/OSX (or UNIX) users and also the effectiveness of the ownership, permission and account scheme of UNIX (From where OSX is based). There's also another reason, the UNIX systems are less evolved to the desktop and ease of use and who get's the market? Microsft, Windows. You don't have a lot of Virus for your platform/architecture, because only multimedia studios, kiosks and a few share of the computer market possess such machines. But that will change for sure, with the new Intel & Apple deal. Write my words
The problem starts when, for example, the average wannabe hacker in the school who found this uber-cool virus creation engine and unleashes the virus in his school to reak havoc. The other students and teachers use the computers, pick a floppy disk, whatever to copy their works back home and suddenly....there's virus manifestation all over the place. These are the type of 'smarmy little jack-ass' who actually make virus programmers to be looked as the scum of the computer era and I fully disagree with this. Most of the times, if there weren't virus programmers, most of the flaws found on operating systems, would be exploited by conscious hackers and eventually lead to major problems than a virus would. The guy who wrote the "I Love You" Visual Basic Script, said to be virus, is not really a virus programmer, although he ressembles a bit of what a virus programmer is like - he had vision to know if he made the script spread through outlook and knowing how untreated security-wise is the microsoft's operating system it would work to whatever his plans were and indeed, it did work. Anyway, I guess I've gone enough out off topic, but I had to expose my view here
cheers
