12-10-2005, 09:35 PM
No macs are not suscepitable to a virus in 99% of the cases in which a virus is released to the general public or corporate sect with the intent to wreak havoc. The reason for this is the coding used to produce viruses. First virus differ from bugs, but one can effect the other. A bug is a glitch in programming generally because of poor coding practices or a rush to put a product into the market place, in which something was overlooked and not fully tested. Viruses on the other hand are purpose built. Hand coded trojan horses that are intended to attack a certain function of a computers operating system, more specifically its code. A bug can be exploited by a virus. Windows has lots of bugs. What makes PCs different is the way they are programmed and the code that is used to program them. PC's in the past and still somewhat today are coded using the dos programming language or in the past BASIC or procedural languages, but are beginning to use the more popular Object orientated programming languages such as C and C++. Macs in the past used pascal as a programming language which is a structured procedural language that uses inferences to make statements for functions such as (if, for, while, etc). Almost nobody bothered with compiling virus scripts because one: it is a difficult language and two Macs enjoy a small market footprint, why bother. Nowadays Macs use unix as an underlying code, known as a kernal. What UNIX does that PC languages do not is block users from utilizing those internal lines of coded to effect the Operating System. In 2005 Symantec corp (they write virus protection software) found 11,000 PC viruses known to exist, they found 0 for the Macintosh. Now as stated before the mac still enjoys a smaller market footprint than PCs. But take note, UNIX is one of the oldest operating enviroments still in use today, it was originally developed in the early sixties and is open source to an extent except for its underlying code parameters which may not be altered, Linux is a form of UNIX, but is not a copy of UNIX. UNIX is also the operating system that has protected our Nuclear missile program from the get go. This UNIX is in all MAC operating systems and is known as the BSD kernal. It is hard to code a virus for an operating system that blocks users from changing its internal code. Windows does not do this, it instead relies on third party software to protect it's operating system. Mac Security like all UNIX variants are secured with government spec encryption. Which is why it is illegal to sell, send to or transport a Macintosh G5 out of the country to any third and some second world countries. They are so powerful that fission models can be run to simulate nuclear weapons building, and you cant shut them down with viruses, especially if they dont connect to an outside network.
Enough of that, I'm starting to make my own head hurt remembering that stuff, and I am not a programming expert et all. I like macs because they are with out doubt the most capable systems , and have been, for graphics work. They are exceptionally easy to implement and use, and come standard nowadays with 64bit architecture. This makes for robust wicked fast systems that can handle anything graphically I throw at them.
Sorry for the long winded explanation.
Enough of that, I'm starting to make my own head hurt remembering that stuff, and I am not a programming expert et all. I like macs because they are with out doubt the most capable systems , and have been, for graphics work. They are exceptionally easy to implement and use, and come standard nowadays with 64bit architecture. This makes for robust wicked fast systems that can handle anything graphically I throw at them.
Sorry for the long winded explanation.