Why Macs Get Less Viruses Than PCs
I have owned many PCs in the past and have fortunately not had any major viruses, but I have had viruses. I have used virus protection software like Norton, Mcafee, AVG and Windows Defender. Now, on my iMac running Mac OS Snow Leopard 10.6.1 I don’t have any virus protection software installed at this current time. It has been said that Macs do not get viruses, which of course isn’t true. Macs get viruses. PCs get viruses. So how do you back up the statement that Macs don’t get viruses? By saying this, Macs get viruses, but not as many as PCs. Yes, we can just say that and let it be set in stone, but there is a reason why Macs get less viruses than PCs. First off, PCs are 90% prone to viruses, because most hacks, viruses and whatnot are coded and developed only for Windows OS running computers. Secondly, viruses can get through even with some viruses blocking software. Macs have their own software to prevent viruses built-in to the firmware and OS. Windows is more easy to get viruses, because it is more likely to have a virus on the PC without the owner knowing. There isn’t a computer or OS that is “virus proof”, but Mac OS 10 is very hard to be hacked into. Windows is also able to be hacked and turned into a Mac via a process called “Hacint0sh”. On a Mac, there isn’t a need to hack Windows on it, because of Apple’s Bootcamp software and third party software like VMware Fusion and Parallels. This post in no way is targeted to be hate for PC or Mac or Linux. It is simply just my thoughts and opinions on why it is more likely to get a virus on a PC than a Mac. And if the Mac were more popular among business and schools as the main computer, they would be almost as prone to viruses. Thanks for reading.
Gagan Moorthy Sep 27, 2009 at 2:28 AM in Viruses tagged OSX, Snow Leopard, mac, pc, virus, windows
Reader Comments (3)
macs get less viruses because they are only about 10% or less of the market
people who create viruses create to mess with the majority. end of story.
Macs have less viruses to this day because when viruses first started going around, Mac's where barely selling/used and Apple almost went out of business. So people that make the viruses didn't care to make them for a computer that they thought would fail. Which gave Apple some Leway to build up a secure OS. Yah, all computers get viruses. But Macs get FAR less than PC's, which is why we have the right to say "Macs don't get viruses". My dad has owned a good number of Macs for over 10 years, and he has never bought virus software and still hasn't gotten a single virus.
ummm, what about the fact that OSX is based on UNIX which prompts you for specific processes to run so you know if a trojan or whatever is actually running in the background