

Google's Eric Schmidt: If you care about security, get a Mac, not a PC - hamedh
http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/06/01/schmidt-if-you-care-about-security-get-a-mac-not-a-pc/

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jason77700
Yes, Windows has many more exposed security risks. Mac's have around an 8-9%
market reach right now. As Apple's market share raises you'll see more and
more viruses targeted at Mac's as we have in the last couple of weeks. Let's
see what happens if Apple ever is able to get 25%+ of the market using Mac's.

In 16 years of using Windows with no Anti-Virus software installed, I have
never gotten a virus. Maybe Microsoft should do a better job of educating
users on what not to click on.

I run a company that does IT Support for businesses. Once a week or so, I'll
have a CEO bring in his kids Laptop with a virus and a good number of times it
was caused by their kid using some p2p file sharing program and downloading
and running cracked versions of software which contained the virus. This is
not yet as big of a problem for Apple as the number of software titles in
general is much smaller and thus people downloading cracked copies which might
contain a virus is going to be smaller.

Two cents.

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archangel_one
What about a firewall? Because I have seen Windows machines infected through
no fault of their users within your 16-year period (Blaster being the most
triumphant example). Admittedly this is probably a minority of malware
installs out there, but I think it gives Microsoft a little too much credit
and their users not quite enough to suggest that it's 100% caused by them
clicking on ILoveYou.jpg.exe.

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ravivyas
Would you rather go to a place which has no defenses because they never got
hit or to a place which is constantly improving their security?

The recent mac defender showed how simple it is to social engineer mac users
because they think its secure.

If you are worried about security , don't do stupid stuff

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lawnchair_larry
Eric Schmidt is giving poor advice in an area that is far outside of his
expertise. I would be surprised if he even knows what DEP and ASLR are.

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mkjones
You don't need to know what either of those things are to make the (correct)
observation that the majority of malware targets the systems on which it'll
get the most bang for its buck.

At least currently, that means targeting Windows users - solely because there
are so many more of them than Apple users.

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Delmania
Of course we should all use Chrome. That way, Google can keep tabs on us!
Seriously, more bad advice that plays on Apple's security through obscurity.

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redstripe
I wonder what his advice is for people that care about privacy. All
indications so far have been: don't worry about it.

In my personal spectrum of concerns, having my machine occasionally violated
by a virus is not nearly as disturbing as full multi year search and browsing
histories being stored and shared without my permission or online profiles
being consolidated into a single identity. I'm not saying that google does all
this - but it's a lot more scary than a virus.

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yuhong
>I wonder what his advice is for people that care about privacy. All
indications so far have been: don't worry about it.

I read most of these cases were intended to be jokes.

