Another Day With My PC

Much has already been said on how OS X edges out XP and Vista in the OS market in terms of design and security. Windows fans dismiss such claims as mud slings from Apple’s henchmen who make their product look good by deforming Bill Gates’ banner products.

So which OS has the upper hand, at least as far as having the most durable and shiniest armor is concerned?

The CNET Duel

CNET has recently sponsored a duel between these two top operating systems. OS X easily put the lights out off Vista in the security category. This is hardly surprising since Vista’s predecessors were known to be vulnerable to all sorts of attacks. While Microsoft has claimed that Vista is the most secure OS in the world, their checkered track record hasn’t convinced even their software’s most loyal fans that their system will be fully protected against malware threats.

Pride-Swallowing Revelation

Take for example Vista’s User Account Controls (UAC) feature. This innovation was supposed to be one of the cornerstones of Vista’s impregnable wall. Its function is mainly to ferret out attacks from malicious programs and prevent them from making any changes to your system. I originally lauded Microsoft for this. I was even tempted to say that Vista’s security features could take Symantec and McAfee out of business.

Complacent folks such as yours truly were taken for a rude awakening by Joanna Rutkowska, a known Windows decapitator, when she revealed the useless nature of Vista’s UAC. She exposed the vulnerabilities of this supposedly impenetrable filter. Microsoft was stunned at the revelation. It didn’t heavily dispute the claims made by Rutkowska. What it only did was to sheepishly point out that the UAC is not exactly a part, or at least an important component, of Vista’s security repertoire.

Having More Enemies

One of the reasons why Vista seems more vulnerable to external threats than OS X is the fact that the former has more enemies than the latter. I’m not sure why many want to see Microsoft go down. Could it be because of its monopoly over the OS industry? I don’t know. Personally, I don’t have any problem with Microsoft ruling over the world. Maybe the reason why people prefer Windows over Linux or OS X is because the former is more easy or convenient to use. You could argue that OS X might have been the world’s most widely used program had it not been for Microsoft’s bully tactics. That’s definitely a good point to consider. But the fact remains that many people are simply comfortable using Windows than any other OS available in the market.

If OS X is more secured than Vista simply because the former is subjected to fewer attacks than the latter, then Apple’s triumph is a hollow one. The circumstances or conditions should be the same for both programs. Maybe OS X critics are indeed right in saying that the Apple software’s security record seems unblemished since nobody has ardently tried to climb its walls.