Mac Osx. Proof Positive.

[Bolo]

I'd like to be the first to congratulate Newgrounds on its lack of knowledge about this — for some reason — much-despised operating system.

I've heard so many half-truths, misconceptions, and outright lies about Mac OSX, that I realized it was time to address some of them in a format understandable even by the lowliest among our ranks.

And now for the kicker; Dispelling Mac myths.

Myth #1: Macs are incapable of being given a RAM upgrade.

Upgrading RAM, FAQ.

And what, may I ask, do you suppose these people are discussing?

Myth #2: You can't upgrade a Mac without buying a new computer.

In much the same way as you update Windows software, the Mac's OS upgrades are purchase from a liscensed retailer, and then, in relatively short order, installed via a disc onto your previously existing Mac.

You don't need a new computer in order to run this software, as I have heard multiple times, from multiple mouths, all equally deluded, and all absolutely incorrect.

Myth #3: Mac / Apple is losing market share, and will soon be dead.

Anybody who still believes this fabrication of reality must be living 12 years in the past. Contrary to this myth, Apple — helped largely by its Mac operating system, as well as other product lines, has been steadliy gaining market share. In a single calendar year, it received an over .5% increase in its slice of the pie this is significant in a multi-billion dollar industry and in the Q32005-Q32006 time period, Apple had a growth rate of 30% or more, and posted a total share of 5.8% of the PC market. For comparison, the top competitor in the industry (Dell) posted a negative growth rate of 6.7% during the same time period.

Furthermore, Apple’s MacBook and MacBook Pros rose from 12.5 percent in April 2007 to 14.3 percent share of the laptop market in May 2007. While the desktops didn’t make out as well, they still rose from 10.2 percent to 10.4 percent over the same time period.

Myth #4: Macs are only safe from viruses because no one makes viruses for them.

According to Network Associates, creators / maintainors of the McAfee and Virex line of anti-viral software, there are more than 71,000 virus threats to the mainstream PC market in existance today if you run an advanced search using "Macintosh" as your criteria, you will get 612 results, or virus listings.

When you subtract out a couple dozen "Hoaxes"—Hoaxes are basically unintentional spam mail--annoying but not really dangerous, and there's so much actual spam out there nowadays that they've pretty much been buried by it. This brings the total down to 580

Note that out of the total, we're already at less than 1%.

Out of those 579 total viruses which affect some versions of the Mac operating system, the vast majority of their names start with a WM/ or XM/. This means that they're a Macro virus which runs exclusively on some versions of Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel (there are a few Word/Excel Macro viruses which don't have WM/ or XM/ in their names as well). In fact, over 95% of these so-called "Mac" viruses are actually directly made possible by Microsoft software. If you take these out of the equation, which seems reasonable since there are solid alternatives on the Mac to Word and Excel, just as there are alternatives to Windows itself, you're left with the following number of viruses that affect the Mac and can't be blamed on Microsoft in any way, shape or form: 26.

26 out of a total of over 71,000. That's 0.000366197183%.

All 26 of these, along with the other 553 Word/Excel Macro viruses, were designed for the OLDER versions of the Mac OS. None of this has anything to do with Mac OS X, which is the relevant system to look at.

Even if there are "few people" trying to exploit supposed flaws of Mac OSX, with 5.8% market share, there should at least be one who's a fairly competant hacker. So why does Mac OSX have ZERO viruses, in comparison with Windows' upwards of 70,000?

Myth #5: Macs can't play any games.

This may be the most oft-cited, and most ill-supported argument of all against the Mac OSX operating system. Mainly because the people who put into use such an argument, have probably never seen a Mac outside of an Apple store in their entire lives.

Why else would they ignore the pile of evidence, sitting right there on Apple's website? Games like:

Need For Speed: Carbon.
Battlefield 2142.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Madden NFL 08.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08.
Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars.
Ratatouille: Video Game
Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs
Sims 2: Seasons
Sims 2 Glamour Life Stuff
X3: Reunion
Championship Manager 07
Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday Armageddon
LEGO Star Wars II
Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff
DEFCON
The Sims Life Stories
ReelDealCasino: HighRoller
ReelDealSlots: MysticForest
Ankh
Star Wars: Empire at War
Out of the Park Baseball 07
Myst Online: Uru Live
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Soaked!
Heroes V
Big Bang Brain Games
The Movies
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Prey
Age of Empires III
Armado
Imperial Glory
Victoria: Revolutions

And take a gander at the "featured games" list to the right. All of these games work natively on Mac OSX.

But of course, if you're in the mood for a little Half-Life, or any other games that run on the Windows operating system, then you should simply look no further than this handy little App. (Boot Camp) It allows you to run windows XP, or if you're up for a few headaches, Windows Vista. On a Mac. It's called dual-booting, and it completely negates the need to buy a computer other than a Mac, ever, ever again. And look, with this alternative application (Parallels), you can run Windows or Linux in a window within the OSX environment.

Myth #6: Macs aren't for every-day use. Just for people in specialized industries.

Recently, an independent site created an all-inclusive, side-by-side review of Windows XP and Mac OSX. This is the final results page of this review.

But look at the areas in which Mac significantly outscored Windows XP: Keyboard, surfing the internet, Printing, Drag-and-Drop, Cut & Paste, Aliases & Shortcuts, Installing & Uninstalling, DVD playback.

These sorts of everyday tasks are exactly the ones that naysayers claim the Mac is incapable of performing.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

In conclusion, if you've ever used one of these insults to throw at Mac users due to their supposedly "inferior" machine, you should truly consider how far off the mark you really were.

[raglfragl]

I KNEW IT!!!HAHAHA!!!NO HALO!!!SRY MAC,BUT U GOT FUCKED!(up the hardrive)

[Lost-Chances]

At 7/12/07 05:24 PM, Bolo wrote: Myth #4: Macs are only safe from viruses because no one makes viruses for them.

Didn't you just prove the myth right? Because (metaphorically) no one makes viruses for them.

[DarkRedFlame]

Macs do not support AMD processors.

I hate Intel. So they lost my vote.

[Bolo]

At 7/12/07 05:28 PM, Lost-Chances wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:24 PM, Bolo wrote: Myth #4: Macs are only safe from viruses because no one makes viruses for them.

Didn't you just prove the myth right? Because (metaphorically) no one makes viruses for them.

Even if there are "few people" trying to exploit supposed flaws of Mac OSX, with 5.8% market share, there should at least be one who's a fairly competant hacker. So why does Mac OSX have ZERO viruses, in comparison with Windows' upwards of 70,000?

[Yiffy]

Mac Os doesn't support anything else than..... macs.
Talking about a crappy os.

[enquencle]

I've always liked Macs, but they're fucking expensive, at least where i live.
I really love their screens, i wish i could have one.

[Lost-Chances]

At 7/12/07 05:30 PM, Bolo wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:28 PM, Lost-Chances wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:24 PM, Bolo wrote: Myth #4: Macs are only safe from viruses because no one makes viruses for them.

Didn't you just prove the myth right? Because (metaphorically) no one makes viruses for them.

Even if there are "few people" trying to exploit supposed flaws of Mac OSX, with 5.8% market share, there should at least be one who's a fairly competant hacker. So why does Mac OSX have ZERO viruses, in comparison with Windows' upwards of 70,000?

You ignored my point. You said it was a myth. You said you were going to disprove it. You didn't disprove it, you proved it right instead.

[Bolo]

At 7/12/07 05:31 PM, Lost-Chances wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:30 PM, Bolo wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:28 PM, Lost-Chances wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:24 PM, Bolo wrote: Myth #4: Macs are only safe from viruses because no one makes viruses for them.

Didn't you just prove the myth right? Because (metaphorically) no one makes viruses for them.

Even if there are "few people" trying to exploit supposed flaws of Mac OSX, with 5.8% market share, there should at least be one who's a fairly competant hacker. So why does Mac OSX have ZERO viruses, in comparison with Windows' upwards of 70,000?

You ignored my point. You said it was a myth. You said you were going to disprove it. You didn't disprove it, you proved it right instead.

I did disprove it. The myth was that nobody makes viruses for macs because nobody uses Macs. The truth is that there are no viruses for Macs because hacker can't crack the wall of defense. The law of probability makes it likely that with 5.8% market share, there ARE people who are trying to crack the code, but it's very apparent that since there are ZERO viruses, they have been unsuccessful in their attempts.

[Lost-Chances]

At 7/12/07 05:38 PM, Bolo wrote: I did disprove it. The myth was that nobody makes viruses for macs because nobody uses Macs. The truth is that there are no viruses for Macs because hacker can't crack the wall of defense. The law of probability makes it likely that with 5.8% market share, there ARE people who are trying to crack the code, but it's very apparent that since there are ZERO viruses, they have been unsuccessful in their attempts.

I'm sorry but you clearly stated the myth was "Macs are only safe from viruses because no one makes viruses for them." You did not say the reasoning behind this is the myth. You said the statement was. So you still proved the myth correct.

[inclusivedisjunction]

None of those reasons you listed are a reason to buy a Mac.

1. You just gave a reason for people to use Windows - to play games. Despite the fact that Mac does, in fact, have games for it, most games are made for Windows, some ONLY for Windows, and most games that have a Mac port also have one for Windows.

2. Virus-free. Hey, Linux is virus free, too! It works on just as much, if not more hardware, then Mac OS X. And many distributions are free!

3. I have a "need" to build my computers. I have built PCs, knowing that I could run Windows, and now Linux on them. Mac OS X cannot be legally run on a computer other than one made by Apple.

So. basically, I have no need for Apple hardware, because I build them myself, I have no need for Mac OS X, because I can get a free version of Linux that will do the same thing, and I have no need for Boot Camp, because my PC can run Windows natively, with all my games, saving me the need to purchase a new copy for Mac.

Now, why again do I want to purchase a computer that has both hardware AND software vendor lock-in?

[Bolo]

At 7/12/07 05:41 PM, Lost-Chances wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:38 PM, Bolo wrote: I did disprove it. The myth was that nobody makes viruses for macs because nobody uses Macs. The truth is that there are no viruses for Macs because hacker can't crack the wall of defense. The law of probability makes it likely that with 5.8% market share, there ARE people who are trying to crack the code, but it's very apparent that since there are ZERO viruses, they have been unsuccessful in their attempts.

I'm sorry but you clearly stated the myth was "Macs are only safe from viruses because no one makes viruses for them."

This myth intrinsically implies that no one uses Macs.

You did not say the reasoning behind this is the myth. You said the statement was. So you still proved the myth correct.

I proved it incorrect. Let's look at statistics, shall we?

Virus-creators, who subscribe to a particular operating system, must vary proportionally to the regular users of said operating system who do not create viruses.

Since the 22,000,000 estimated Macs on the market make up 5.68% of the total market share, let's assume that the 90% market share of Windows begets 348,591,549 users. Out of both of those Operating systems, let's assume that .0001% of the user base of each actively tries to exploit the flaws of the system.

For Windows, that means approximately 34,859 hackers. For Mac, that means 2,200 exploiters. Let us also assume that each hacker only creates one virus, if any. For Windows, this means a nearly 48.7678935139% success rate in virus creation (17000 windows viruses divided by 34,859 hackers). Using the same method for the Mac, and even — hey, just for kicks — throwing in the 579 viruses, including the ones that were caused by Microsoft Word and Excel's security holes, and the viruses that have never been compatible with Mac OSX, we get a hacker virus creation success rate of 26.3181818182% (579 viruses, divided by 2200 hackers). This is just barely more than half the creation success rate experienced by unfortunate Windows users.

So what causes the viral creation success rate, which should be about equal on both machines, to be in such great disparity if security is supposed to be of equal caliber on both the Mac, and the Windows-running machine? Better protection.

[bigbadron]

At 7/12/07 05:27 PM, raglfragl wrote: I KNEW IT!!!HAHAHA!!!NO HALO!!!SRY MAC,BUT U GOT FUCKED!(up the hardrive)

http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2003/11/h alo/

[Peaceblossom]

Or you could do all that on linux without the hassle of having to defend yourself all the fucking time.

[Bolo]

At 7/13/07 01:32 AM, Peaceblossom wrote: Or you could do all that on linux without the hassle of having to defend yourself all the fucking time.

Or you could run Linux via parallels in a separate window within the Mac environment. While Running OSX. And XP, if you so chose.

[Peaceblossom]

At 7/13/07 01:34 AM, Bolo wrote:

At 7/13/07 01:32 AM, Peaceblossom wrote: Or you could do all that on linux without the hassle of having to defend yourself all the fucking time.

Or you could run Linux via parallels in a separate window within the Mac environment. While Running OSX. And XP, if you so chose.

Or you could spend less than 800 dollars on a fucking amazing computer and run linux with wine and do everything a mac can, and everything windows can, and look THIS FUCKING SEXY!

[inclusivedisjunction]

At 7/13/07 01:36 AM, Peaceblossom wrote: Or you could spend less than 800 dollars on a fucking amazing computer and run linux with wine and do everything a mac can, and everything windows can, and look THIS FUCKING SEXY!

Amen, Brother!

[Bolo]

At 7/13/07 01:36 AM, Peaceblossom wrote: Or you could spend less than 800 dollars on a fucking amazing computer and run linux with wine and do everything a mac can,

Except slower, and with less functionality.

and everything windows can, and look THIS FUCKING SEXY!

Wow. You realize that everything on that picture you just posted was stolen from Apple's Widgets, which came out approximately two years before Windows Vista was even called "Vista".

And what is the Windows version now called? "Gadgets". Go figure.

I'm sensing a serious lack of credible opposition in this thread.

[Lagatag]

At 7/13/07 01:11 AM, Bolo wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:41 PM, Lost-Chances wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:38 PM, Bolo wrote: Making up statistics to avoid the shame of proving your own myth as a fact...

Yes, lets PROVE stuff by using MADE UP statistics.
I respect that you went through all the trouble, but face it, no one would waste their time making a virus to infect Mac users when there is a section of the market that is 18 times bigger. That means 18 times as many opportunities to steal valuable private info or potentially 18 times as many people to possibly piss off because that is the aim of most viruses.

[BatteryPowered]

Oh boy, nowadays instead of console wars, we have computer wars. ><

My PC serves me well and thats all that matters, i don't really care about macs

[Bolo]

At 7/13/07 02:00 AM, Lagatag wrote:

At 7/13/07 01:11 AM, Bolo wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:41 PM, Lost-Chances wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:38 PM, Bolo wrote: Making up statistics to avoid the shame of proving your own myth as a fact...

Yes, lets PROVE stuff by using MADE UP statistics.
I respect that you went through all the trouble, but face it, no one would waste their time making a virus to infect Mac users when there is a section of the market that is 18 times bigger. That means 18 times as many opportunities to steal valuable private info or potentially 18 times as many people to possibly piss off because that is the aim of most viruses.

However, there are 22 million opportunities, 22 million people using the Mac OS that a hacker cannot just let lie. Any hacker worth his salt realizes that when a market has already been cornered, you have to take the initiative and stake your claim elsewhere. 22 million people, each infected with a bank account info-stealing virus, equals a lot of cash. This is just as, if not a more lucrative opportunity than the already-picked over remains of the Windows security breaches.

I didn't make up statistics, either. I calculated them all out.

[SuperSexyActionFurry]

The thing I hate most about Mac OSx is that they have a lot of users who always advertise why their OS is great. It is just an OS, why do people think they work for apple and try to defend it?

[Cuppa-LettuceNog]

Bolo; you are wrong, Lost-Chances is right. You said "Myth #4: Macs are only safe from viruses because no one makes viruses for them". You then went on to prove that the reason Macs are safe is because there aren't any viruses for them. Then, when he pointed that out, you said a bunch of irrelevant stuff in the apparent hope that if you kept talking, people would assume there was a reason to it and conceded the point to you.

[Bolo]

At 7/13/07 02:08 AM, Cuppa-LettuceNog wrote: Bolo; you are wrong, Lost-Chances is right. You said "Myth #4: Macs are only safe from viruses because no one makes viruses for them". You then went on to prove that the reason Macs are safe is because there aren't any viruses for them. Then, when he pointed that out, you said a bunch of irrelevant stuff in the apparent hope that if you kept talking, people would assume there was a reason to it and conceded the point to you.

Cuppa-LettuceNog, if you'd bothered to read my final post on the debate with Lost-Chances, you'd see that in relation to its size, each company MUST have a certain number of hackers attempting to exploit it. No matter what percentage I'd chosen for the population of hackers per operating system, the data would've been the same—Microsoft Windows significantly less secure.

There was nothing irrelevant in that post. It was all calculated, and it's all sixth grade math. Read it again.

[Bolo]

At 7/13/07 02:07 AM, SuperSexyActionFurry wrote: The thing I hate most about Mac OSx is that they have a lot of users who always advertise why their OS is great. It is just an OS, why do people think they work for apple and try to defend it?

Because not only is the criticism it generates from all corners not warranted, but also untrue. This is quite easily the best operating system, and all the statistics show it. End of story.

[SuperSexyActionFurry]

At 7/13/07 02:16 AM, Bolo wrote:
Because not only is the criticism it generates from all corners not warranted, but also untrue. This is quite easily the best operating system, and all the statistics show it. End of story.

This is wrong. OSes are not comparable. They each serve a different purpose and a target audience. Whether it is Windows, Linux, OSx, or any operating system. I love mac OSx, I love Linux. However, Windows is the most suitable for me as a user. It is just silly arguing which one is the best.

[Lagatag]

At 7/13/07 02:06 AM, Bolo wrote:

At 7/13/07 02:00 AM, Lagatag wrote:

At 7/13/07 01:11 AM, Bolo wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:41 PM, Lost-Chances wrote:

At 7/12/07 05:38 PM, Bolo wrote: Making up statistics to avoid the shame of proving your own myth as a fact...

However, there are 22 million opportunities, 22 million people using the Mac OS that a hacker cannot just let lie. Any hacker worth his salt realizes that when a market has already been cornered, you have to take the initiative and stake your claim elsewhere. 22 million people, each infected with a bank account info-stealing virus, equals a lot of cash. This is just as, if not a more lucrative opportunity than the already-picked over remains of the Windows security breaches.

I didn't make up statistics, either. I calculated them all out.

You made up the percentage of hackers for Windows and Macs. The number of hackers per OS will have a large difference, it won't even be close to being the same. So when you "proved" that Macs have a lower infection rate, did you personally count and calculate the percentage of hackers per users and it just happened to be the same? No, you didn't even get an estimate from any website, much less a reliable one, you just pulled one out of your ass.

Also I fail to see how 22 million > ~340 million as you suggest (Also there aren't even 340 million people in the States, and no way that number could be for world wide use either as its far too small).
Most people looking for profits would still hack Windows as most of the large computer networks for holding personal information use Windows. Also hackers would have to develop their own viruses to hack a Mac instead of just modifying the existing viruses for Windows to get around whatever new virus protection is released, which is much harder and more time consuming, especially when you consider the much lower number of people it will affect.

[gregaaron89]

At 7/13/07 02:08 AM, Cuppa-LettuceNog wrote: Bolo; you are wrong, Lost-Chances is right. You said "Myth #4: Macs are only safe from viruses because no one makes viruses for them". You then went on to prove that the reason Macs are safe is because there aren't any viruses for them. Then, when he pointed that out, you said a bunch of irrelevant stuff in the apparent hope that if you kept talking, people would assume there was a reason to it and conceded the point to you.

Well you're both half right. There are far less viruses made for Macs, but the ones that are made for Macs are blocked by the anti-virus software.

[inclusivedisjunction]

At 7/13/07 02:23 AM, gregaaron89 wrote:

At 7/13/07 02:08 AM, Cuppa-LettuceNog wrote: Bolo; you are wrong, Lost-Chances is right. You said "Myth #4: Macs are only safe from viruses because no one makes viruses for them". You then went on to prove that the reason Macs are safe is because there aren't any viruses for them. Then, when he pointed that out, you said a bunch of irrelevant stuff in the apparent hope that if you kept talking, people would assume there was a reason to it and conceded the point to you.

Well you're both half right. There are far less viruses made for Macs, but the ones that are made for Macs are blocked by the anti-virus software.

And I'll bet a good number of the ones for Vista are blocked by Windows Defender.

Incidentally, I have not had a single virus since W2K SP3.

[Bolo]

At 7/13/07 02:23 AM, Lagatag wrote: You made up the percentage of hackers for Windows and Macs. The number of hackers per OS will have a large difference, it won't even be close to being the same. So when you "proved" that Macs have a lower infection rate, did you personally count and calculate the percentage of hackers per users and it just happened to be the same? No, you didn't even get an estimate from any website, much less a reliable one, you just pulled one out of your ass.

Listen. I don't know how many times I'm going to have to say this: The final viral creation rates are for comparison only. If I had chosen .001% instead of .0001%, the results would've been the same: Windows significantly less secure than Mac. Fact is, I have no idea of the exact percentages, but I know they must be proportional, so the COMPARATIVE data is the same either way.

Also I fail to see how 22 million > ~340 million as you suggest (Also there aren't even 340 million people in the States, and no way that number could be for world wide use either as its far too small).

Calculate it yourself. According to estimates by Apple, Inc, and outside sources, there are 22 million Mac users. They account for 5.67% of the market share. Windows accounts for slightly above 90% of the market share. Set up a proportion. Solve it. Windows has 348591549.29577 users.

Most people looking for profits would still hack Windows as most of the large computer networks for holding personal information use Windows.

Agreed. And most hackers do use Windows. Probably equivalent to Windows' market share, actually. But the small percentage of hackers who attempt to exploit a Mac meet with less success. 0%, actually, if you don't count the Microsoft software.

Also hackers would have to develop their own viruses to hack a Mac instead of just modifying the existing viruses for Windows to get around whatever new virus protection is released, which is much harder and more time consuming, especially when you consider the much lower number of people it will affect.

Hackers, one would think, even in their individual efforts, could easily find security breaches of even the smallest magnitude in ANY operating system. So why have there been no security breaches for OSX? I'm sure there are a few hackers who ONLY work on Macs. It speaks well of the Mac OS that the security shell has not yet been officially broken.