Notes before reading:
*For an explanation on how this rant is organized, please: read this.
*This rant is posted in this thread.
*The discussion is about a new Mac OS "virus" that posed a big threat to the Apple user community.
-Studly is a forum user that is very pro-Microsoft stating that an Operating System with so much market share is a very good Operating System.
-IMO is In My Opinion.
-A lot of pro-Microsoft users were complaining that this was an unfair comparison to Microsoft if Apple users were not giving such a big deal to this bug because it was patcheable, as all the deal that they were giving Windows with all it's patcheable bugs.
-This rant is divided in two parts, one beginning a thread, another replying to a person agreeing with me but saying that this virus wasn't such a big deal.
-If you want more information about this "virus", I've posted about it before in this blog, or you can go here.
-By the way, here's the guy that discovered it.
Rant:
Part 1.
Ah! So much to say:
"Three flaws in a week." Fair enough (although I'm doubtful about if it's a week, but that's not the point)... three *concept-of-proof* vulnerabilities (not out yet), two of which have been reported with a very low severity. This last one, fine: a big one... can be easily disabled by the instructions that apparently every other Mac Fanboy has dictated here (disabling an option on Safari, or moving the Terminal), at least until the Apple releases the patch.
Something very similar happenned to Windows in the last few months: the WMF vulnerability, you don't even have to download the thing, just visit a page with a WMF on it's page and the executable code inside the WMF runs locally. And you know what was Microsoft response to that? "Don't go into the Internet until we patch this thing up." Nice, and it took so much that a guy (don't remember his name) came up with a patch of his own, openned up it's code and some Security Vendors actually recommend his patch more than Microsoft's.
You wanted a fair comparison? There you go...
Frankly, right now I want to see Apple's quickness to respond, because you have to admit: Apple's very new at this... Mac OS X is not totally unvulnerable (no OS is), so this kind of stuff was going to happen sooner or later: took five years, but it finally came. It's been way overannounced but fine, like any Windows user out there when it comes about a new vulnerability: I've taken note and the extra precautions to guard myself from it, like I've been doing since I knew what a virus was, independently of what machine I was using. A computer's not secure if a stupid ignorant's using it: so Mac Fanboys, get off your cloud, I can stick a finger up your ass if you're not careful, the same way someone could delete all of your files if you double click a document that you don't know what it is.
And Studly... shut the hell up... if you want to judge Windows vs. Mac OS X over who's 'better' by the size of the market share of each OS, fine: Windows' interface is based upon the interface of the first installments of the OS used in the first Macs, so if you see it that way Apple has more than 90% of the market share (all of Microsoft's and it's own). Don't like it? Ok, it's understandable, Windows has changed a lot from those years, I get it. Microsoft's market share is that big because of IBM's stupid move to not make DOS it's own (they let Microsoft license it to other manufacturers), everyone saw what mighty IBM was doing so they grabbed onto it as well... it's a business strategy, and Bill's a very good business visioner. For God sakes! IBM didn't even look at DOS when they bought it, they just shove it into the users' computers who thought that it was the ONLY thing out there because, well, it was everywhere. Still don't like it? Have something else to say? Wow! You really don't shut up, do you? OK, bring it on.
Part 2.
Even though it hasn't been exploited yet, it's still a big one. I mean, really: Safari downloads a file, executes it, and, even though it can't kill the whole OS, it can delete anything the users can delete, like their own home directory.
The thing that's "new" here's that Apple is in the spotlight in security right now. Windows users (at least the anti-Apple ones) are just waiting for something to go wrong with the Mac and point "Ja! Losers!". And Apple is being tested right now in that matter: let's see how fast and well Apple responds to all this hype. I know that this isn't the first vulnerability that OS X has had (only God can write an OS so unvulnerable), but it is one of the firsts that has drawn a lot of attention, and the first one that IMO really matters. The iChat one and the Bluetooth one exploit their own propagation, not a lot of severity there (from what I've read); but this last one, if it's well used, can really cause pain.
That's all, jeje...
Studly? You there? No? Nothing? C'mon dude! I was expecting another statement of yours like "The plague back in the mid-15th century was awesome, because it had like a 85% market share in Europe", or something.
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