[danield]

BGG Says "Mac OS X doesn't need defragging, really?"

Uh... Yeah.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1375

Yup, you're just another PC fan. Just like you ignored the fact from the link I posted earlier that stated a PC connected out of the box can be compromised without user interaction when connected to the internet. Only reason for having AV on a Mac is to protect against infected MS Word or Excel documents received from a PC user. FROM PC USERS. HELLO? Quit reading FUD from PC sites and educate yourself.
Message was edited by: smax013

[danield]

I don't blame those companies that are wanting to sell a product. Good for them. Unfortunately, there have been reports of iDefrag type applications that completely hose systems. Never seen any problems regarding not defragging a Mac OS X system since 2001. Never. Ever. MacFixit.com and sites like those are notorious for publishing weird and anomalous Mac issues. When you further look into it, you find the that the user has done something not recommended by Apple to the system or has installed some third party crappy app. It's almost always the case. The user then usually does a re-install to a base system and the problem disappears. Believe me, this is from experience on Mac OS X. You have none, from what have you already stated. So, big grain of salt taken with anything you try to post concerning OS X.

[WinTard]

The difference between you and I is I understand Operating Systems at the architectural, algorithmic and source code levels. Thus regard an OS for what it is. Not voodoo, or black magic.

I am philosophically at the opposite spectrum of Harry Potter... But do not mind his stories and adventures either. :) I prefer Star Trek, the latest movie in IMAX. Tomorrow, I'm going to see Terminator, and on June 24th, Transformers... The Day The Earth Stood Still and Eagle Eye, (all in IMAX of course) were pretty good also.

Likewise, life is all about fun! (OS included). I'm very serious about fun!

~~~~~~~~~~
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.
~ Warren Buffett

Reality can destroy the dream; why shouldn't the dream destroy reality?
~ George Moore

[sfoalex]

As I had mentioned in prior posts, another MagSafe Apple MacBook has caught fire.



http://www.engadget....o-more-trouble/

See the recently posted Engadget article. Some less than informed (clueless) Apple fanbois have difficulty believing this. I personally don't like laptops that suddenly catch fire. Just a thing I have about not losing my home.

[Evildave]

They don't mention whether the guy has pets, such as cable-gnawing kittehs.
It's not unique to Apples. Anywhere you have a high current DC friction connection you are prone to get these problems.
The only difference is the mac cable is held against the contacts with a magnet, versus spring tension. Either way, an insecure or dirty contact can generate heat. So make sure the connection is free of dust/debris and plugged in solidly... for ANY notebook.
Faulty Dell power connections
www.petitiononline.com/dellhell/petition.html
HP Pavilion Adapter Melts
[http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080529135741AAp0ons]
Faulty ECS Adapter
[http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showthread.php?t=195977]
IBM recalls 500,000 melting adapters
[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/03/ibmrecallsadapaters/]
Compaq fries
[http://www.fixya.com/support/t218333-m2000_laptop]
Various battery and adapter recalls
[http://www.recall-warnings.com/cpsc-category-adapterpowersupplychargerbattery_1.html]
Looks like the only difference is, when it's an Apple adapter, it's a newsworthy event, and when any PC nearly starts a fire (or does start a fire) it's just another 'disgruntled customer'.

[sfoalex]

Apple gets a lot of press for nothing, I agree. Sometimes that's a good thing, but mostly I find it irritating.

[danield]

Dave.. you really are evil! ;-)

[jregooden]

Oh, it's you again. This just proves there maybe some debate. My experience proves that I don't need to and I'm pretty informed. So I'm good. Do you use Macs? What is not debatable, however, is the millions of viruses that threaten Windows. And I don't need to back it up with any facts. That one's a given. Your turn... This time do or say something predictable or surprise me, by saying something nice about the Mac. :-)

[BGG001]

Quote

{quote:title=Paraphrased from ZDNet:}{quote}
Windows XP, Vista, and Mac OS X vulnerability stats for 2007
Windows XP total flaws: 34
Windows Vista total flaws: 20
Mac OS X total flaws: 243

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=758

Macs have many more security issues than Windows, leaving them open to the creation of millions more viruses than Windows if Apple and Windows's market share positions were flip-flopped. Don't believe this information? It's all sourced on ZDNet back to Secunia. This is not debatable information either.

[BGG001]

The article only claims that XP is vulnerable, with Vista SP2 being in Beta stages, it isn't mentioned. Also, I draw this conclusion from the fact that it states that the reason why it doesn't work on XP is due to ASLR and DEP which isn't on XP. Also the exploit is considered "less critical" in Secunia. So XP is the only vulnerable system.

Source:
http://secunia.com/a...task=statistics

---------------

Mac OS X - 129 Secunia advisories; 934 Vulnerabilities
MSFT Vista - 55 Secunia advisories; 94 Vulnerabilities
MSFT XP - 236 Secunia advisories; 236 Vulnerabilities

Okay, Mac OS X and XP have been out since 2001, Vista 2007 ...lets calculate that.

Mac OS X - 16.125 advisories and 116.75 vulnerabilities per year.
MSFT Vista - 27 advisories and 47 vulnerabilities per year.
MSFT XP - 29.5 advisories and 29.5 vulnerabilities per year.

So saying Windows is less secure than OS X is a complete and outright lie in the case of a 50/50 marketshare. Right now, perhaps, only due to the marketshare. This is including OS X 10.5.7 update, but doesn't factor in Vista SP2. (XP SP3 obviously included). Also note I used Professional Edition of XP, it's the most common now, regardless of that Home Edition actually had less, so I gave the benefit of the doubt.

Sources:
http://secunia.com/a...task=statistics - Mac OS X
http://secunia.com/a...task=statistics - Microsoft Windows Vista
http://secunia.com/a...task=statistics - Microsoft Windows XP

[WinTard]

Hmm, something nice... The MacBook Pro is a work of art. It's so cool and sexy. I want one.

(For the looks, not the performance or value however.)

How about fresh news from today's market?

Angered by Apple Delay, Hacker Posts Mac Java Attack

WinTard said:

If Java deems it an important hole to fix, why doesn't Apple? It certainly isn't because Apple's are impervious to this Java bug?

It simply demonstrates that Apple doesn't take security seriously at all. Or cares for that matter.

[quote name='DTNick']
A lot is made of the number of known security vulnerabilities, but what's more important IMHO is how a company responds to known security holes. So needless to say, when I see that a company (in this case, Apple) still hasn't incorporated a fix that's been out for nearly six months, I'm a little disconcerted. Unacceptable.

[DTNick]

Off-topic, but I can't say I expected this to balloon into a 25-page forum thread... o_O

[BGG001]

DTNick said:

Off-topic, but I can't say I expected this to balloon into a 25-page forum thread... o_O

And you made it 26 :)

[DTNick]

Sheer numbers of discovered vulnerabilities doesn't only tells part of the story, I think. A lot also depends on the severity of the holes, how easy it is to exploit them, and how quickly they get patched (and as we've seen today, Apple may not be doing a great job at it).

Here is an interesting post discussing the distinction between security (what the OS does to keep you safe) and safety (what danger are you actually in?):

http://threatpost.co...ty-all-relative

>And you made it 26 :)

Yay! :P
Message was edited by: DTNick

[BGG001]

No doubt in my mind that you're right, numbers does tell only part of the story. My previous post before the secunia based post has ZDNet as a source, if you click on it, you find that over 95% (rough guess) of Mac OS X's vulnerabilities are highly critical, same goes with Windows XP and Vista. So that part of the story is proven to be irrelevant since both OSes have the same severety in their vulnerabilities in general (based on a 2007 report, looked for more recent/older statistics but came up dry).

My guess is Apple hasn't done much security wise in Snow Leopard, but that's pure speculation based on precedents.

[DTNick]

Yeah, hard to say what Apple's up to with Snow Leopard. They say it's mostly an under-the-hood update, which presumably means upgraded security, but there's been nothing mentioned explicitly. Guess we'll have to wait until WWDC...

[danield]

Gee, I wonder what OS these guys were using? There aren't much details but you can probably guess which OS it is.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,521040,00.html

Wonder how much productivity was lost and the man hours to get things back in order? Time is money you know.

[Evildave]

Hey, I'm sure we'll hear about how lax the FBI and U.S. Marshal's service are with security, and how they deserved to get a virus.

Well... they were running Windoze. That certainly counts against them. There's your negligence, right there.

[WinTard]

In my humble opinion, I think the problem doesn't reside with ANY OS, but with whatever sits between the chair and keyboard... Sorry, I couldn't resist...

~~~~~~~~~~
The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.
{Chinese Proverb}

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
~ Thomas Jefferson

rm -rf /* ;)

[danield]

In this PC forum, FUD trumps the facts so what's the point in debate. I just posted a link to the reality that is the Windows OS. Just the facts. What I want to know is, was it XP or the almighty Vista?