MacDailyNews Take: ROTFLOFAO, he called what Ou does “research!” Please see related articles:
• ZDNet’s George Ou Exposed as Ignorant Microsoft Shill – RoughlyDrafted
• George Ou’s Greatest Apple Hits! – The Macalope
• George Ou: When Gerbilling isn’t fun enough – Artie MacStrawman’s Apple Orchard
• George Ou’s Bad Idea: Comparing Apple Ads to Nazi Propaganda – Wired
Espiner continues, “He found that Apple’s latest operating system, Mac OS X, faced more critical flaws than Windows XP and Vista combined… Ou made the comparison as an indicator of how many vulnerabilities might exist in 2008, rather than a comparison of the relative security of the operating systems.”
“Some experts have said that counting vulnerabilities is not necessarily reliable as a measure of security,” Espiner reports. “Tristan Nitot, president of Mozilla Europe, told ZDNet.co.uk this month that it was more important to take into account the time it takes to patch vulnerabilities.”
Espiner reports, “The amount of exploit code available in the wild also has an impact on security. While there are thousands of pieces of code that seek to exploit Windows XP vulnerabilities, exploit code for Mac OS X is relatively rare.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In “honor” of George Ou, we’re going to continue surfing the Internet unimpeded with our Mac OS X Firewall turned off for another six years.
His articles are more SNAPPY these days!
Comparing security by counting vulnerabilities, but ignoring actual exploits makes as much sense as comparing smart phones by counting features, but ignoring whether people can satisfactorily use those features in the real world.
Amazing, new Mac user here, you all make up explainations to justify your beliefs that Apple can do no wrong.
sounds like religion, is this a cult thing?
example:
A key gauge would be what actual vulnerabilities are out in the wild and being exploited.
why does this matter, I hack, I tell no one my exploits don’t make virus either to have get out of control.
give me your ip address, I;ll get in your machine
SSH is open by default on Mac’s, people make up easy to guess passwords. simple dictionary attack I pwned you.
“In “honor” of George Ou, we’re going to continue surfing the Internet unimpeded with our Mac OS X Firewall turned off for another six years.”
LOL… excellent. Lets email Ou that we’re all going to do this.
Idiots,
Microsoft pays security companies to look for and publicize security holes in Mac OS X so the vulnerability patch count of Mac OS X vs Vista makes Vista somehow look better.
The truth is, with what few security holes there were in OS X already patched, OS X is very secure.
Vista, on the other hand, is full of secret, legacy code that is full of undiscovered vulnerabilities just waiting to be found and exploited.
Let’s compare exploits or unpatched, unfound vulnerabilities. There’s no way Vista wins that game.
ya know, it’s funny. i go to hardocp.com quite a bit, and they reported on this too – of course, they didn’t actually think about it when they posted it, they just said something like “so much for most secure OS in the world!” – they have a lot of information and news that i enjoy reading but their anti-apple bias actually manages to be more irritating than the anti-MS bias here – mostly because at least the anti-MS stuff here has some basis in REALITY, instead of just in theory. MDN’s take is awesome, and i’ll be joining them in not worrying about my built-in firewall (four years of OS X for me and not one security/virus/malware issue the whole time).
as for hardocp: they can stfu and enjoy running ad-aware and spybot and AVG while i actually get some web surfing done!
>>we’re going to continue surfing the Internet unimpeded with our Mac OS X Firewall turned off for another six years.<<
Not me. I’m having my firewall turned on. Also on my servers both Ubuntu Linux and FreeBSD the firewalls are always on….. Also my router has a built in firewall which is….. yes you guessed it: always on
Having a firewall and not using it is plain stupid….
Archie the new Mac user,
Do you also want the keys to my house and car? Neither has an alarm system.
Archie the new Mac user,
Welcome <arms out and lips puckered> Yes, this is a cult. Did you get a tatto yet? What flavor Kool-Aid do you like? We’ll talk later over a tofu lunch, OK?
“give me your ip address, I;ll get in your machine”
I hope you’re better at terminal commands than spelling and grammar.
;-p
I’m game… you proclaim:
“SSH is open by default on Mac’s, people make up easy to guess passwords. simple dictionary attack I pwned you.”
Do your stuff, get into my machine, impress me
“Do you also want the keys to my house and car? Neither has an alarm system.”
No, just leave the doors unlocked for us, because that’s the equivalent of going on the Internet without a firewall and anti-malware protection.
I know, in sleepy little MacTown where you live you don’t get much crime, so the population feels safe and secure for now with the doors wide open, no alarm systems and the locks not working even if you did choose to close the doors.
Twenty three years and no problems yet.
That’s all I need to know.
we’re going to continue surfing the Internet unimpeded with our Mac OS X Firewall turned off for another six years.
Do you also drive without seat belts because your car has a great safety rating?
Some risks aren’t worth taking.
“Do you also drive without seat belts because your car has a great safety rating?”
Only if I can light a bowl while straddling a six-pack and text messaging my Congressman.
“Twenty three years and no problems yet. That’s all I need to know.”
I think that’s what the Indians said before European disease came to their peaceful little world.
Don’t forget that one of those European diseases was compulsive gambling. Sweet irony.
George “Ou NO HE DIT’NT!!!!”
“activity”- that of which there is none in Mr. Ou’s brain…
Ampar,
Is the compulsive gambling disease spread through bodily fluids?
LorD1776: Odds are . . .
I don’t get the mentality of people that could have enjoyed the last 20+ years of relatively virus free existence with Apple’s Macintosh but consciously chose not to and continue to do so.
Instead they insist on crying “the sky is falling” if there is a possible virus threat on the Mac. Meanwhile, they have had to put up with over 100,000 virus’ on a Microsoft Windows PC – the endless supply of Windows malware And pathetic Anti-virus support that Microsoft has sold them. – I mean, Microsoft actually sold it instead of just including it as part of the OS. That in itself is worthy of a “WOW”. How pathetic is that of Microsoft? Very!
Still, the Mac in comparison to the PC is completely virus free. Why wouldn’t you want to be a part of that? I certainly enjoy that aspect of the Mac.
The Mac has a Long Long way to go to catch up to Windows in the virus world – and so far Windows has maintained a very “unhealthy lead”. A lead Microsoft doesn’t appear to be able to relinquish.
Security through obscurity? – Whatever – that’s perfectly fine with me whether it’s true or not. It’s more secure. I’ll take it. You would be a fool not to.
>>Let’s compare exploits or unpatched, unfound vulnerabilities. There’s no way Vista wins that game.
That is illogical, Captain. You cannot compare unfound vulnerabilities as you have nothing to compare.
Apple CHOOSES to stay on top of things
RATHER then be moved over by hacking hell raisers PAID by MacroSloth and it’s team of Anti-virus sellers.
See Apple care about it’s status and will continue.
MacroSloth sits and basks it’s glory dreaming up useless plots to invade Apple.
They laugh in fear knowing soon their time will end shortly.
THEY are insecure over there at Macrosloth stink.
jay and my pointed plunger
All this back and forth mud-slinging is actually part of Steve’s evil plan for global domination.
He is siccing the journalists and the die-hard fans on each other. Once the swirling vortex of cynical-obsessive deconstructionism vs. rabid loyalty reaches critical mass, the two will react and go supernova, destroying both groups and clearing the way for total world control.
Trust me
TRY me
I LOVE to PROVE you wrong.
AND ALL OF US HERE will LAUGH your useless hacking abilities.
COME ON
HERE
99.235.255.182
GET IN WRITE me a TEXT MESSAGE using my TEXTEDIT
and a huge smilie
Ron