Re: help me understand how a Mac is virtually immune to viruses?

Chris L Peterson wrote:
> Well, I know it is closely watched by a lot of popular press. Sort of
> the way Brad and Angelina are. But serious watching... not that I've
> noticed. As computers go, its sort of a boutique brand, not really taken
> seriously.

I disagree. It is in a minority, but a respected minority, in the
Computer Division networks at ISI. I think it is provocative that among
non-Windows platforms where I work (computer research), there is really
no OS-sniping to speak of. The Mac users don't snipe on the Linux
users, who don't snipe on the FreeBSD users. And although there is some
limited Windows sniping, it does not focus primarily on the security
issues (although those are certainly present). If you go to the IETF,
where a lot of the protocols that enable Internet use (including this
very conversation) are developed, you'll see that Macs are fairly well
represented.

The research divisions at ISI do not use Windows at all, really, but one
should be careful in drawing conclusions from that. In networking work,
one has no need for the wide variety of software available for Windows
(or the Mac, for that matter). Rather, one needs an open-source kernel.
Windows is not exactly conducive to that. Most of the research is done
on Linux or FreeBSD, with possibly a slight nod to FreeBSD (but it's
pretty slight).

--
Brian Tung <brian@xxxxxxx>
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
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My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.html
.

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