RE: mac trojan in-the-wild

["David Harley" <david.a.harley () gmail com>]

> > I've been reading this thread and I don't understand why 
> there is this 
> > assumption that Mac users are lax or stoopid...

If that assumption exists, perhaps it's influenced by the number of Mac
users who believe that all Windoze users are not only stupid, but
undeserving of common courtesy. 

> > I have a Mac.  I also use Linux, BSD, Windows, and many other OS's.

I own and use Macs, and have spent many years in Mac support (and many other
platforms). I'm not a Mac hater, and have no time for the "my OS is better
than your OS" idiocy. But assessing IQ by OS -is- stoopid, and it's a form
of stupidity I see most often among Mac zealots. 

> Seriously though, thinking Mac users are generally smarter 
> than everyone else is just wrong. We wouldn't need Mac IT 
> support if the users knew how to admin their stuff.

There have been studies (no, I don't remember the references: it was a while
ago) that indicate that there is less of a support load for a Mac-using
population, in general -- I suspect that's more to do with the
usability/quality of the interface than the intrinsic intellectual
superiority of Mac users, but I'm sure the whole of focus-apple would
disagree with me. Subjectively, having supported a 50-50 Mac/PC population,
I'd say Mac support was generally less time-consuming in that environment.
However, I've seen --------enormous------- spikes relating to security
issues, most noticeably around the mid-90s when whole Mac-using populations
became a prime source of macro virus dissemination. I know that OS X is very
different to System 7, but I'm not convinced that the user population (and I
mean the whole population, not the relatively knowledgeable people on
security-related lists) has become that much more security-savvy.
Security-aware, yes: Windows users are also much more aware than they used
to be. What confuses the issue for both groups is the amount of conflicting
(mis-)information with which they're bombarded.

--
David Harley
AVIEN Interim Administrator: http://www.avien.org 
http://www.smallblue-greenworld.co.uk  


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