[CS-FSLUG] Apple's Big Virus

[Bob Brown]

On 4/29/05, "國產 Wei-Yee Chan (Made in Chinar)" wrote:
>  http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/319
> 
> Apple's Big Virus

Not to bring this back on topic or anything, but this made me think
about viruses and Windows.

Just recently I upgraded a Win95 computer to Win98. THere was an
annoyance on the system that I thought might have been a joke program
that someone placed on as a prank and I hoped an upgrade would help
the problem. When it didn't I offered to do a bit of research and
found it was a virus.
Windows has been offering a great amount of backwards compatibility
for the sake of users and developers. Part of the price we pay for
that is a decade's woth of viruses that are still viable.
Apple, on the other hand, doesn't care much about backwards
compatibility. A new system requires new software. Especially with the
change to the Unix base.

The large number of viruses for Windows reflects the number and
compatibility of the Microsoft operating systems over the years.

I think that the same features that have made MIcrosoft systems so
popular with users make it popular with virus writers. Perhaps it is
not only the market share of Microsoft that makes it such a good
target, but it is what makes it a good target that gave it such good
market share.

If Microsoft is going to make Longhorn so that developers will have to
update their software to run on it then that may kill many of the
viruses and instead of having more than a decade of built up viruses
it will be back to something much smaller.

Bob