Random Apple Thoughts, Loosely Joined
- I don’t think enough emphasis has been placed on the real and advantageous reasons (in their mind at least) Apple might have for creating a Mac App Store and making that the only way to install Apps on a Mac as it is with the iPhone/iPad. This is not only about control for the sake of control – which they clearly prefer. It is also about control for the sake of quality and security. The Mac OS only remains fairly secure and virus/malware free mostly through obscurity. The folks who would want to exploit the many known security holes just don’t see enough money in it for it to be worth the time. That said, as Apple’s marketshare increases, so does that metric. Certainly, if the only way to get any executable on the Mac required going through the App store, or installation of a specific Ad Hoc Profile that requires the user supply their UUID, and then that had a forced expiration date and creating such required Developer Program membership… I think you see where I am going. The system in place for the iPhone is an incredibly secure one in comparison to the Mac OS. There is a lot of value in that – especially from a marketing perspective.
Everytime this point is brought up, that Macs are only more secure because of obscurity, I die a little. Macs are more secure because Mac OS X is more secure than Windows. Back in the pre-OS X days, Macs had an even smaller market share and yet they had a ton of viruses and the like. If Macs are only secure because no one sees the value in exploiting the vulnerabilities, then why did Macs at one time have to deal with viruses in the same way Windows does now?
Also, I’ve heard the argument that there isn’t enough money in virus authors to target Macs, and that may be true. There may not be a lot of money in it. But, after all of the “Macs don’t get viruses,” and “Macs are way better than PCs,” talk, don’t you think that one person, ONE single person, would have written a virus in order to shut Mac users up? And I’m not talking about a trojan, whereby the badguys trick the user into installing something bad. I don’t run any antivirus software, and I’ve never had any spyware either.
It can’t all just be because “no one” uses Macs.
