Widget security worries dog Apple

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I totally agree

"However it would the the hight of foolishness to assume that OSX is going to have anywhere near the problems that Windows has had over the years."

Of course not. But that wasn't my point.

Now that Windows comes with every port closed by default (XPSP2), the vast majority of malware infections are trojans that are invited in by users opening mail attachments and executing them.

I fail to see how OSX would protect people from the type of threats that are prevalent right now on the WIndows platform.

Even OS's like linux that don't execute files by default are not immune to this type of user stupidity. Why? Executable attributes of files are *saved* inside of tar'd/gziped files in Unix, and modern unix desktop enviroments like KDE handle zip files as if they were folders. Considering the fact that the current crop of windows email worms require a user to open a zipped email attachment and execute the file inside, I fail to see how any other OS (Mac or GNU/linux) will help.

Root permissions you say? Who the heck needs root permissions to set up shop inside a users space and send out spam or connect to an IRC server?

Removal of threats might be easier since the virus wouldn't have the benefit of root permissions, but the damage to the internet (spam/DoS bots) would be the same.

You can take 20 million stupid computer users and move them from Windows to Mac and you'll still have 20 million stupid computer users.

Posted by: toadlife   Posted on: 05/23/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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