Mac users' worst nightmare?

ChrisJChrisJ Registered Users Posts: 2,164 Major grins
edited February 20, 2006 in The Big Picture
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1923151,00.asp

John Dvorak's latest column with speculation about Apple ditching OS X and switching to Windows. Admittedly, Dvorak frequently (usually?) has far-out ideas that come to nothing. Hopefully this is one of those.

Also in the news today, rumors about the first OS X virus. [macrumors.com]

Wow, hard to believe but that article on pcmag.com may be slashdotted... its link is dead. Funny thing is, you get a Windows ASP error message. Here's a link to the PC Mag site with the article listing, in case the link changes when it comes back.
Chris

Comments

  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,967 moderator
    edited February 16, 2006
    ChrisJ wrote:
    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1923151,00.asp

    John Dvorak's latest column with speculation about Apple ditching OS X and switching to Windows.
    Right. And Microsoft is switching to OS X. :lol:lol:lol

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  • dragon300zxdragon300zx Registered Users Posts: 2,575 Major grins
    edited February 16, 2006
    OS X is based off of unix. The operating system known to be one of the most stable in the world. Why on earth would they change it to be based off of windows, the operating system known to be the most unstable in the world.
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  • NHBubbaNHBubba Registered Users Posts: 342 Major grins
    edited February 16, 2006
    Read the article.. I don't necessarily agree either.. but there is a decent argument and there is some evidence to support the idea.

    In the end I think OSX is part of the 'experience' and that they'd loose to less-expensive compeditors every time w/o the OS. Right now I think the OS is at least half of what sets them apart from the pack. If they DO go windows, I think it would be the beginning of the end for apple..
  • JimMJimM Registered Users Posts: 1,389 Major grins
    edited February 16, 2006
    Very interesting read. He makes some valid points. Thanks for sharing.
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  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 16, 2006
    What a bunch of hooey.
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  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 16, 2006
    ChrisJ wrote:
    Also in the news today, rumors about the first OS X virus. [macrumors.com]

    Not too much of a concern, since it requires an admin password to run....
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  • DJ-S1DJ-S1 Registered Users Posts: 2,303 Major grins
    edited February 16, 2006
    DavidTO wrote:
    Not too much of a concern, since it requires an admin password to run....

    I read some of that real quick, seems like a pretty lame attempt at a trojan. About the admin password, some folks said if you use the account you set up the machine with, then it has admin rights already and no password is asked for? I think that's how it went.

    Anyway, seems like much ado about nothing on this one. Funny to see some of the more uninformed Mac folks panicked posts though. mwink.gif
  • mercphotomercphoto Registered Users Posts: 4,550 Major grins
    edited February 16, 2006
    dragon300zx wrote:
    OS X is based off of unix. The operating system known to be one of the most stable in the world. Why on earth would they change it to be based off of windows, the operating system known to be the most unstable in the world.
    Exactly right. Dvorak is an "interesting" person. Personally I've never been impressed with his articles or his insight. I'm not sure how he stays employed in the industry. He's way off base here.
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  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 16, 2006
    mercphoto wrote:
    He's way off base here.


    Yes. I mean, OS-wise, Apple's doing everything right. They're setting the bar that Microsoft is desperately trying to meet.
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  • flyingdutchieflyingdutchie Registered Users Posts: 1,286 Major grins
    edited February 16, 2006
    NHBubba wrote:
    .... If they DO go windows, I think it would be the beginning of the end for apple..
    I'm not religious about what operating system is better than what other, but it would be shame if it would be dumped. Less choice is usually not good, especially if there are already so few (viable) choices out there.

    But i do think that Apple can survive without OS X. If they focus on application development and hardware (iPod), they may be able to be very profitable. Maybe there is just not enough money in making OS-es....
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    But the story seems very much like pure speculation :)
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  • cabbeycabbey Registered Users Posts: 1,053 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2006
    DJ-S1 wrote:
    About the admin password, some folks said if you use the account you set up the machine with, then it has admin rights already and no password is asked for? I think that's how it went.

    That should not be the case. The only thing "special" about the account that you initially created when you setup the machine is that it is automagically in the admin group, it does not normally run in any hightened level of access. Now depending on *how* this ... thing (I can't bring my self to call it a virus) is using the privledge escalation mechanisms to run as root, it is possible that if you've done some legitmate admin action recently that your authorization will be cached and not asked for again. This is because some mechanisms (sudo for example) will not ask you again if you they have asked you within the last few minutes and you have not locked your terminal since.
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  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2006
    Yeah, admin privileges last 5 minutes after authorization, I think. But you can enter your admin password in any account, so I don't really see the diff. I install apps in my kids' accounts, and they're not admin. It asks for an admin username and password, I put it in and have admin privileges.
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  • gusgus Registered Users Posts: 16,209 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2006
    All your base are belong to us.
  • W.W. WebsterW.W. Webster Registered Users Posts: 3,204 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2006
    Humungus wrote:
    All your base are belong to us.
    Eh?
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  • David_S85David_S85 Administrators Posts: 13,250 moderator
    edited February 17, 2006
    W.W. Webster wrote:
    Eh?

    here...
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  • W.W. WebsterW.W. Webster Registered Users Posts: 3,204 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2006
    David_S85 wrote:
    here...
    Thanks. I thought Gus must be talking Strine!
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  • macaddictmacaddict Registered Users Posts: 73 Big grins
    edited February 17, 2006
    DavidTO wrote:
    What a bunch of hooey.

    Yeah, that's a lot of hooey. Dvorak is always pretty much anti-Apple. I remember when the iMac G5 came out he had nothing but trash to talk about its design. No worries, OS X is going to be around for a long while.

    ...and by the way, not a virus... there are no such animals in the OS X universe!
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  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2006
    macaddict wrote:
    Yeah, that's a lot of hooey. Dvorak is always pretty much anti-Apple. I remember when the iMac G5 came out he had nothing but trash to talk about its design. No worries, OS X is going to be around for a long while.

    ...and by the way, not a virus... there are no such animals in the OS X universe!

    From the link, quoted above. This is FUNNY:
    MacDailyNews Take: Did security experts also caution Macintosh users to view the incident as a wake-up call that all operating systems can run programs, too? Do not download "latestpics.tgz" and then uncompress it and then run it by giving Mac OS X your Admin password at the prompt. Also, do not drag files that you wish to keep on your hard drives to the Trash and then empty it.
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  • cabbeycabbey Registered Users Posts: 1,053 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2006
    DavidTO wrote:
    Yeah, admin privileges last 5 minutes after authorization, I think. But you can enter your admin password in any account, so I don't really see the diff. I install apps in my kids' accounts, and they're not admin. It asks for an admin username and password, I put it in and have admin privileges.

    So far as I know, the prompts like that one are specific to the application doing that action, they won't grant other apps escalation. The sudo auth is the one that lasts 5 mins and applies to other processes. (though I'm fairly sure if you use it durring that time, then the timer resets.)

    I just tested this... did an install under my wife's account (non-admin) by authenticating as myself (admin), then immediately tried to do a privledged action (delete a file in /Applications) and got denied.

    You've got to love a system that is secure out of the box, but will still let you actually *do* usefull things. iloveyou.gif
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  • CatOneCatOne Registered Users Posts: 957 Major grins
    edited February 20, 2006
    DavidTO wrote:
    Not too much of a concern, since it requires an admin password to run....

    No, it doesn't. If you're an admin, you can run roughshod over /Applications.

    /System or /Library typically require passwords, but Applications is writable by admins, without a password.

    BTW it's a trojan, not a virus.
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