Interest may be a part of it, but difficulty plays a factor as well. Maybe it would spread quickly, like you suggest, but it may not either.
You know, it only depends. Most people rely on Intel, or AMD, chipsets. Now that Macs use them, it would be somewhat easier to write viruses for Macs, but this is where PowerPC Macs may become useful. I don't see people scripting their viruses as Universal Binary. The majority of Mac users rely on Intel Macs now, I believe, and the number of PowerPC users is declining. Those Macs are still very good in their own right, and should the virus be Intel-only, as more OS X-related things are becoming, PowerPC could live a little longer. My G4 performs very well on Leopard for an old iMac barely meeting the requirements. Safari and Office 2008 run fine. I could use it over an Intel machine to avoid viruses and be okay. It does everything I would use it for, even if it is a little slower. Speed for security isn't that bad of a tradeoff. But, I wouldn't want any Intel Macs to be infected. Knowing Apple, they'd crack down on the security problems almost immediately, or at least, we'd like to believe that. Apple hasn't gone through this with OS X before, so they'd be put to the test.
-BMF
I'm sitting here with a cold, so I'm not invulnerable. ![]()
Anyway, I just got through reading some comments from a chap named studiotropico who was determined to argue that apple has a crippling defect when it comes to viruses. I think this person was put off in part, by the stereotypical apple fanboy cliche that apples are perfect and invulnerable to viruses - I say cliche because I really don't see too many out there saying apples are perfect compared to other OS. I think those folks with some small knowledge of computers know that macs can be jammed up with a virus. It is just much more difficult for an apple to catch one.
What has always made a computer virus so insidious is the fact that it sneaks up on you, without your knowledge. Windows machines are open to picking up viruses for a variety of reason, most common of which is simply because most of their programs will automatically run bits of hidden code embedded in a variety of files... emails, multimedia, activeX files, etc... that can gain immediate gain access to the OS, and make changes. Apples are not impervious to outside programs making changes to it's Operating System. However, because of the mac OS design, any code that can actually change the OS must be installed by the owner of the computer. Simply put, if you don't trust the software, then don't download and install it. There is no guarantee this will remain true, but for right now, I believe I have been factually accurate.
Question for those who are more technologically knowledgeable than I am...
The word on the street is that you have to install a virus yourself, to get OS X infected. Does this mean you actually have to put in the administrative pass word to install this malware or is there some other scenario that would cause an apple to get infected by the handful of OS X viruses that are out there?
In other words... what is the exact, step by step scenario of how an apple computer would get infected by a virus. I think knowing this might comfort those of us who are unsure about how this stuff works, and what dangerous behaviors we should be mindful of, as we go about our daily computer tasks.
Thanks for any input !
grim

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