Apple has released a series of new ads touting the advantages of Mac’s over PC’s. Although some are more subjective than others, one points out that last year there were 114,000 known PC viruses. The reason I point this out? Because an article released by the AP today claims that viruses have caught up to the Mac. Their evidence? Apparently two users have confimed that by clicking on series of links that their computer obtained a Mac virus.
1 virus.
MacOS X was initially released to the public in 2000 in the form of a public beta, however the core of the operating system is based on BSD Unix and the OpenStep/NeXTStep operating system which was released by NeXT computer in 1989.
Prior to MacOS X the original MacOS had about 50 known viruses over its life span, starting in 1984.
In addition the article cites the move from a PowerPC to an Intel as a vulnerabilty, an erroneous statement as vulnerabilities are due to weaknesses in the operating system software, the hardware it runs on seldom if ever factors in to the equation.
In addition the article fails to explain if the virus actually did anything, or how it worked in general.
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Categories: Technology & Nerdy News
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May 2nd, 2006 at 3:04:30 am
As Macs become more popular, they will definitely become a target. But for now, it’s nice to not even need an anti-virus, anti-spyware/adware program.
May 2nd, 2006 at 9:11:56 am
There are no viruses for the Mac, because that would be like shooting movies for the betamax. Besides, mainly computer geeks like Macs, and hackers like/are computer geeks.
May 2nd, 2006 at 11:38:45 am
The name of this Trojan is Oompa Loompa and it has been out for months.
I wouldn’t really call this file a virus as it is not self-replicating or spreading. It’s more like a trojan file that people send to others. It is supposedly a .jpg, but it goes through a full litany of warnings saying “this is an application–do you really want to install it” before attempting to install. It doesn’t spread, except an attempt over ichat Bonjour (i.e. LAN).
Anyone can write a file that erases your hard drive and send it to another person saying “Naked Brittney Spears pictures’. But unlike Windows viruses, which spread at the drop of a hat, this one is not rated as a serious threat.
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=102379
May 2nd, 2006 at 11:45:28 am
I love the new ads! They are just priceless and so true…. now when will corporate america catch on and start using macs? I don’t want to be forced to work at a pc for sixty hours a week for the rest of my life…
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:15:16 pm
Too bad iPods starting sucking ass with the fourth generation.
May 2nd, 2006 at 8:40:58 pm
I wonder how well my employer would treat me if I spoke glowingly about LockMart and Airbus the way David speaks about Mac. Hmmm….
You’ll here no defense of Microsoft from me. The one thing Microsoft does really well, though, is work with corporations. Almost all major corporations use Microsoft products because Microsoft does a much better job of comporting to what corporations desire in their software products.
I recently downloaded Ubuntu for my ailing and elderly laptop (newly resurgent with my new HD), but I was disappointed that neither my ethernet card nor my wireless adapter was compatible with Linux. Thus, if I want internet, I have to reinstall XP and partition my HD if I want to keep Ubuntu. Oh well, I might still do that because I want to see how much I can handle Linux.
May 2nd, 2006 at 10:47:12 pm
I was at a seminar today for MicroSoft Office. In the middle of a demonstration the instructor triggered a general protection fault.
Forget the viruses. Can’t they just produce software that works? :-)
May 3rd, 2006 at 8:13:12 pm
ScottF - if the instructor was any good at all, he would have found some way to say “I meant to do that, to show you how …” … (grin) …
There are those who claim that Windoze IS a virus …