Symantec CEO advocates Macs &A#JD1Tg!d8!' 2888

Scrutinizing as ever Lefty.

I raked this argument over the coals, one more time, in a previous note in the thread. But let me blether on with hopefully some useful points:

Even if Mac market share stagnates, it has been proven that Mac OS X malware is possible, and it will happen. But no way in this time and space dimension will Mac malware reach the catastrophic proportions of what Windows suffers. Reminder: there are over 86x more malware per Windows user than there are per Mac user. You can't explain that away with market share numbers.

I am all for kicking Apple in the butt to have them improve Mac OS X security! I have been annoying Apple for many years with my expectations of constant improvements in their products, and am pleased to find this is a very common attribute of Mac users.

The Security Updates from last week, including those in the new version of QuickTime, are very promising. There were 25 (!) security repairs in just the system security update. Undoubtedly this will be used as FUD by the wintrolls, but I know very well that this is a great sign that Apple are busy on security priorities.

I am very aware of the BSD issues. I don't understand why the improvements in BSD haven't been integrated into MOSX. My guess is that they have the same atbreastude as with Darwin in general: Leave it to the open source volunteers to do it. Therefore, it gets neglected. I know they have some paid people involved with Darwin, but they obviously should throw in some more.

Linus Torvalds attempted to tear apart the Mach kernel a few months back. If I were Apple I'd take them as 'fightin' words' and respond with an effort to improve it. Similarly I'd take all this FUD mongering about Mac security this past 9 months as an opportunity to go 'beyond gold' with their efforts to wipe out vulnerabilities.

But I don't manage Apple. For all I know that's a good thing.

;-D

-- Fortune Magazine, 11-29-05: What's your computer setup today? Frederick Brooks: I happily use a Macintosh. It's not been equalled for ease of use, and I want my computer to be a tool, not a challenge. Frederick Brooks is the author of 'The Mythical Man Month'. He spearheaded the movement to modernize computer software engineering in 1975