Well well well…what do we have here.  According to some people botnets/trojans/viruses on the Mac would be accompanied by the sky falling, pigs flying, or Elvis coming back.  Sky is still in place, pigs are on the ground, and Elvis is still dead.  I got this nice piece of news this morning from the NY Times.  I have a few problems with the Mac.  I don’t like how closed it is, the fact that you can’t update your hardware, and the fact that you pay so much more for it.  My biggest problem however are the snarky Mac users.  I have met less that 5 Mac users that didn’t make me want to punch myself in the face because they kept preaching the good word of Steve Jobs.  How superior it is to Windows, how you don’t have to worry about anything, how much more “secure” it is than Windows.  I can respect someones opinion and decision to use another OS, but please, get your facts straight before you bash my OS of choice and call me a caveman for using it.

The thing that makes me angriest is that the majority of people who talk about how much more secure the Mac is don’t even know enough about the Unix file structure and subsystem to even discuss WHY its more secure.  While I do not support malicious coding, I do enjoy watching those who are flying on the dreams of the Mac take that fall into the ocean of reality.  The biggest reason for the Mac’s “security” is the lack of users.  Hackers don’t take the time to code out viruses and other malware for the Mac because its not worth it to them.  As of December 2008 Microsofts market share was still 89.6%.  OSX is about 8.9% of that open market share.

As seen at Pwn2Own the last 2 years Apple products aren’t that difficult to crack…for hackers that is (sorry, can only link one article).  As OSX becomes more popular…which it will, Mac users will quickly discover that they paid more only to have less of a software selection, limited capabilities, and have the same problems with malware (This excludes users who have just grown accustomed to using Mac tools such has artists and musicians).  Users need to bring their heads out of the clouds and realize that the only way they won’t get viruses/malware is if they take responsibility for their own actions.  You don’t need to click on every flashy thing that pops across your screen.  You don’t need to load 30 applications at start up.  If your computer gets infected, no matter what OS you use, it doesn’t show how much the OS sucks…it shows how much you suck as a user.