Much ado about Mac malwares

Recently, the debate of Microsoft vs Apple has been rekindled again. Now the subject is on malware. As usual, the Microsoft side says see, Mac can have malware, so its not fundamentally secure.

The funny part is how do you know if the OS is fundamentally secure if you have not used it in the first place?

I use both Microsoft and Apple machines and I am not a fanatic for any of them. However, I have to agree that out of the box, Apple machines (Mac) are much more secure than the Windows machine, at least pre-Vista. I've not used a Vista machine yet so I'm unable to comment on it.

Why is the Mac fundamentally secure? The reason is that it truly allows delegation of authority to the normal user account. In layman terms, that means that if you're using a non-administrator account, it allows you to install programs using a normal user account by asking you to key in the administrator password once. This works for all the programs for the Mac.

One thing I always gripe about Microsoft is that they have so many versions of the same operating system, but only the more expensive ones have the basic security needed. For example, only Windows XP Professional allows the Power User accounts. Even then, if you need to install software, you'll still need to re-login as an administrator for most programs. The normal Windows XP Home does not even have this basic security. It's either a normal user or an administrator, and some programs do not work in the normal user account.

Now back to the topic of malware. Recently there has been news the Mac has malware. I was wondering... So? The malwares for the Mac actually either:

1. Requires the hacker to have physical and login access to the machine, or
   
2. Requires the user to install some software in the machine

I mean come on... Any operating system will have malware for the above 2 points, even UNIX systems. Nowadays, malwares exist everywhere. They no longer target the OS, but they target the user. Yes... The weakest link. The gullible user. Persuade them to install some software and walla, you'll get your backdoor.

The bottom line is that to guard against malware, it has to start with the user. Do not blame the computer. It's the user who needs to educate themselves on the dangers of the Internet. The operating system can only do so much, and 99% of the reason why users get viruses and malwares is because of the user's carelessness.

I've been messing around with computers for more than 10 years, and I've never gotten a virus or malware for at least 10 years.

By the way, my Mac still does not have anti-virus installed.