[OT] Browsing the internet... It is safer from Linux?

[Richmond]

On 10/31/2010 08:12 PM, Björnke von Gierke wrote:
> It's probably about a yearly hacking contest, where boxes are setup and then people are invited to hack them. Mac OS X did indeed succumb most quickly there in the last few years. In addition there has been reports of one infection in the wild that uses java, and is able to run on mac os as well as on windows.
>
> Windows is protected by UAC, Antivirus, and windows defender. I'd argue that in everyday environments, windows is actually better secured then mac os and maybe on even footing with linux. On the flipside, it's also the most likely one to be targeted. Because most infections for people like us come in randomly, the risk of having a crisis is therefore far bigger on windows.
>
> I do have a windows machine, and I consider it the insecure one, compared to my unpatched mac os  x server and my everyday machine. Linux is too hard to use for me, so I can't comment much on that, beyond it probably not being the target of anyone with it's almost inexistent market share among non-tech oriented users.

The first thing I do when I install Mac OS X on a machine is enable the 
ROOT account; that is dead easy;
especially as the Mac OS HELP system tells you how to do it. Set up the 
FIREWALL, SHARING and so on.

Windows, on the other hand, starts telling you to fork out extra moolah 
for anti-virus stuff . . .

> On 31 Oct 2010, at 18:57, stephen barncard wrote:
>
>> Peter, where do you get these 'facts' about the security and vulnerability
>> of MacOS today? Your statement just doesn't match up with my experience with
>> the OS.
>>
>> "Dead Duck?"
>>
>>
>> On 31 October 2010 02:22, Peter Alcibiades<palcibiades-first at yahoo.co.uk>wrote:
>>
>>>   OSX is a dead duck almost right away, Windows
>>> not long after, and Linux holds out longest.  But I don't know what the
>>> starting setup is on the windows installation.
>
>