[huskerlug] Re: Interesting and on-topic message for May #2
- From: GreyGeek <GreyGeek@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: huskerlug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 00:00:15 -0500
Charles Leslie wrote:
> On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 12:26 AM, GreyGeek <GreyGeek@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Charles Leslie wrote:
>>
>>> One of those reasons is because it's the more targeted platform of
>>> course, because it has the most market share. That's why Macs rarely
>>> get viruses even though their security is as pathetic as everything
>>> else, perhaps Safari is even worse than IE. As Mac gets more market
>>> share, malware is increasing.
>>>
>>>
>> That argument has been discredited long ago. IF the number of viruses
>> circulating were in direct proportion to their marketshare one would
>> expect that if there were 1,270,000 viruses for Windows last year there
>> would be 127,000 for Mac and about the same amount for Linux.
>>
>> Had that many viruses been attacking Linux last year Microsoft would
>> have made sure that news was on the front pages of all IT websites.
>>
>
> Your statistics are a little bit off if you think about economics.
> For people that write malware and viruses, Windows is the most viable
> platform for their work. If you were an information thief, and had
> limited time to perfect and code new programs, what platform would be
> the most economically viable to spend your time on? I for one would
> certainly ignore the platforms that have less market share than the
> one that has the MOST, because I want to get more bang for my buck.
> Time is money.
>
>
>
Consult avcomparitives.com to see the numbers about the number of
viruses they tested against (which were found in the wild).
As far as market share, no one can contest the count in the retail
channel which shows Apple between 10-12%.
The market share for Linux is problematic. CNET and ZDNet both gave
Linux a 4% market share for 2003, and 6% in 2004. I have seen 8%
bandied around (unless you think Microsoft's rebrander, NetApplications,
isn't fudging the books at 1%), but my suspicions are that it is about
the same as Apple's because one downloaded ISO generally is copied many
times and installed on more than one computer. And, folks tend to be
USA centric when talking about marketshares. China is rapidly becoming
the largest user of computers and the last figures I saw on their
desktop market share was over 12%, with some figures going as high as
16%. Other countries have larger market shares for Linux than the USA
does.
So, IF Linux is "as vulnerable" as is claimed by some on this list, then
there should be NO problem showing lists of Linux viruses that number in
the tens of thousands (not just Windows jgp viruses with Linux suddently
added to their name). and finding news stories of Linux bot farms with
thousands of zombies should be a cake walk. If Linux fruit hangs just
as low as WIndows there should be a proportionate amount of fruit flies
around Linux. There is not.
----
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