Apple Quietly Admits Macs Get Viruses

Damn, what planet are you living on Terrence. Just another twisted and corrupted piece of crap made by a pc guy who didnt even bother to investigate what he was writing about.

Ohh I am looking forward to the day I see a serious critical article about Macs describing the real negative sides - based on facts and not sour feelings...

...I admit its a difficult article to make - very few negatives..

All the Apple bashers please go suck on Bill Gates' pee pee!

"Apple's percentage of the home computer market is tiny compared to Microsoft. There isn't nearly as much incentive for virus/malware creators to work on OS X as there is for Windows."

This is a bogus argument.

The is a virus that affects Linux on iPods - which has only a tiny fraction of the installed base of OS X.

There were Windows 7 viruses before the open beta period even started - when Windows 7 had only a tiny fraction of Apple's market share.

There were lots of other examples in computer history where an OS with insignificant market share (BeOS, for example) also had viruses.

It's not market share, it's good OS design.

And, no, I'm not claiming that Mac OS X will NEVER have a virus, just that it doesn't have one today - which is an indisputable fact.

This won't win anyone one way or another, but if you are familiar with teamspeak this will make sense. We had a TS server that got hijacked by some punks and added plenty of channels and such that if you tried to click on from a windows box, it would launch scripts and infect you with malware,spyware, virus, etc. However, from a Mac i was able to delete every channel with no harm done. Not saying Macs are impervious to vulnerabilities. But they sure do come in handy when the windows machine was useless. And BTW I do my gaming on XP, but I have a Mac as well and unless you have both, you can't really argue based on anything but other people opinions. That's my 0.02.

Lol... you all get so worked up over computers. I love it and I'm learning so much just by reading all your comments. So thanks to all of you-- PC and MAC lovers!

After reading a wide variety of responses I will first address everyone by noting I am both an Apple AND Microsoft technician. Currently I work on both MAC and PC, Networking and so on. To those getting technical Trojan and Worm are varities of Malware type, yes, these AREN'T called viruses by definition but if you really want to get technical PCs don't get viruses anymore either for the most part. Today's world of technology is very different than that of the 90s. Back, 10-15 years ago people wrote virsuses and other forms of malware to cause damage simply for fun, for bragging rights, practice or even resume(lol). Today it's all about money. Viruses yield little to no profit, how does a self replicating OS eater bring money? A few ads until the machine dies = worthless. Malware is where it's at which is what Worms, Trojans among other forms come into play, people use the term virus to refer to any sort of outside software causing harm, effects or results NOT desired by the end user.

Furthermore most forms of Malware today look to make money whether it's charging you to remove what they put on, spam pop-up ads to which they make small profits per ad, steal browsing or other personal info for sale or even more malicious forms such as stealing credit card and banking information or identity even. No offense to the MAC users but it's a simple fact that Apple doesn't even control 5% of the consumer market in the realm of PCs. Take these numbers into consideration since yes, MAC OS X is very stable and nicely built but you also have more than 20 MS to 1 Apple which means Windows is going to be a lot better explored and exploited simply based on how much exposure it is getting. Personally I think to each their own and they each have their own place, I'm now sitting in our shop with a variety of PCs and no MACs simply because there aren't as many although we did just get a call from a lady who owns an Apple and now has a "Virus".

Long story short people who aren't confident in what they believe or where they are try to convince people to change their own minds so that they can be more confident in their beliefs. Out of all of the customers I see the MAC people are the only ones usually too insecure to accept the fact that PCs are viable computers as well and try to convince me(the guy fixing their broken MAC) that I shouldn't mess with PCs anymore. Meanwhile at a PC user's home, or business, I can pull out my iTouch and nobody cares to tell me how inferior it is compared to the new Zune HD(because it really is) they respect my personal preference and leave it at that. No computer is flawless, no software is invulnerable, quite simply it's all about $$ right now they see money in what they're doing so they will keep doing it until they need to change and I certainly do see the day talks like this will not be needed because the vulnerabilities will be much more well known and instead we will better work together in resolving them and not bash.

It comes down to you get what you pay for! Buy a pontiac or a BMW? Buy a pc or a Mac? YES, Mac cost more up front, but in 3 years it will still work like new, hold 75% of it's value. Compared to pc that will probably have been trashed a year already, and have zero value. So what really cost more. I know I have sold many macs 2-3 later and got 70-80% of the value back, anyone done that with their pc? Did not think so. It's ok if you can't afford a Mac, just quit complaining at those of us who can. Buy all the pc's and anti-virus, then spend half your time getting it to work, I DONT CARE!