Windows is like a bad neighborhood, strewn with litter, mysterious odors, panhandlers, and untold dozens of petty annoyances. The Mac is like a good neighborhood, where the streets are clean and the crime rate low. You don’t need bars on your windows in a good neighborhood; you don’t need anti-virus software on the Mac.
The security disparity between the Mac and Windows isn’t so much about technical possibilities as it is about what people will tolerate. And Mac users don’t tolerate shit.
The consistently eloquent technology writer John Gruber describes the reason why Windows is ridden with spyware, adware, and viruses.
Actually, Windows is ridden with spyware, adware, and viruses because the overwhelming majority of all computer users are running Windows. The authors of those programs would get meager returns if they designed their programs to run on Macintoshes soley because they would have a much smaller target audience.
While Macs do have a good amount of snob appeal (don't get me wrong, I love Apple), from my experience Mac users are no more computer-savvy or less tolerant than the average Windows user. If Mac users didn't "tolerate shit," they wouldn't have a daily avalanche of Viagra-laden spam in their inboxes every morning. Were adware platform independant, as email is, Mac users would really be in the same boat as Windows users.
So, really, it is more circumstance that keeps Macs free of annoyanceware and viruses.
Posted by: Dave Cunningham | June 12, 2004 at 03:03 PM