[-0MEGA-];721423 said:
They dont have as many viruses because virus programmers would rather focus on Windows based ones, since after all like 90-95% of computer users are on a Windows-based OS. The same goes for FF vs IE.
That is true, but also you have to realize that a Unix based OS is way more secure by design than windows. I mean any exploit or self propagating virus would need an admin password to install itself. If you run as a non admin for every day to day use you make your Mac (or unix/linux box) just that much more secure.
Basically the kernel controls the hardware and nothing else has access to it. OS doesn't even have direct access to it. The kernel is its own little locked down layer of the OS. Applications, software, etc communicate with it via the shell and require root level access which you have to give it. Where as windows is coded very poorly, making every user run as admin to have access to things and then letting all sorts of applications, drivers, etc run as root level processes giving it direct access to the OS kernel.
I agree with you that if OS X had more of a market share it would be exploited more. I will also say that OS X is not perfect when it comes to security, I have been following their security updates and the people that keep trying to exploit a Mac remotely to prove that the OS is not secure. The thing is, no one has been able to accomplish this yet. The plus side of running a *nix OS is that you won't find the script kiddie of the month using known exploits to kill the OS as you do in windows.
Another huge advantage of *nix OSes and OS X is that there is no freaking registry. All applications are self contained, which I think is way better. Why do you need to give applications access to a system registry which has access to the kernel and what not? It really just does make a mess of things, and even though I have found uses for the registry, I would much rather have .plist files and conf files instead like *nix OSes have.
Third party always comes into debate too, and I agree windows has more third party options. Not only with software, but with things like peripherals, applications, hardware, etc. However, quantity does not equal quality by any means. Apple may have less options, but the upside is those options they have are way more compatible and have way less issues. You never see driver conflicts, you don't see upgrades break existing technologies as much (it happens but barely compared to MS), there is either always a mac version or a mac alternative as well. Really the only thing Mac doesn't have to a PC is gaming. Hardware wise and OS wise the Mac would make a mean gaming rig. Their OS is responsive and has excellent memory management and their hardware is top notch (high quality, quality contorlled) and since its a closed platform developers aren't stressed to make things widely compatible, giving them a better ability to make it work. For example they don't have to code in the possibility for 1000s of different hardware and OS configurations because Apple is more of a closed market. On top of all that I speculate that gaming on a Mac will indeed get bigger and better. EA and id already announced they are going to start releasing their games for the Mac and on top of that they are going to try to make it so their future released are released on both platforms at the same time.
With the release of Leopard, which will be October 2007, Apple has also included a set of APIs they are calling core animation, which is pretty much their version of DX, allowing devs a set of APIs to access hardware and develop 3D and OpenGL support for their applications. That is also hinting that Apple is like hey game devs, if you wanted to you can start making games for us, here are the tools.