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[waynep]

I don't want you to take it personally. I think it's cool of you to be helping people and I see that you contribute a lot to these forums.

Yes, the statement IS 100% factual. However, it is also misleading. When you write stuff like: "you don't have a virus on your Mac" and "there are no viruses for Mac" it'll mislead many people in thinking that Macs cannot be affected by malware at all. Many people won't read the link you provided, they'll jut take your word for it and, consequently, develop an incorrect notion of impenetrable security.

I, personally, understand the premise of your statement. I just don't think the less technically literate folks would understand it correctly, that's all.

While GGJstudios is absolutely 100% correct, I have to agree. I have been in the computer business since the 80's. I understand the difference in malware types . . ie: viruses, Trojan Horse, etc. However someone like my mother does not, nor does my wife. In fact most computer users don't know or care to know what the difference is between a virus or a trojan horse. All they know, or want to know is that they are bad, not desired, and want keep them off of their computers.

 

[GGJstudios]

While GGJstudios is absolutely 100% correct, I have to agree. I have been in the computer business since the 80's. I understand the difference in malware types . . ie: viruses, Trojan Horse, etc. However someone like my mother does not, nor does my wife. In fact most computer users don't know or care to know what the difference is between a virus or a trojan horse. All they know, or want to know is that they are bad, not desired, and want keep them off of their computers.

Your mother, wife and "most computer users" aren't reading my posts in this forum. If they were, they would be looking for information and wouldn't be stopping when they read the first sentence of a post. There is no question that many do not know the differences in types of malware, which is exactly why I refer them to the link, which gives them definitions. There is nothing misleading in my posts, unless they're selectively quoted and taken out of context.

your mac cannot be infected with malicious software

Macs cannot be affected by malware at all.

See how selective quoting without the context is misleading?

 

[gorskiegangsta]

Not if they read the full statement, which apparently you didn't:

I did read it, but that's beside the point. Most other people won't. All they'll need is that one quote for "reassurance" and there they go thinking they're invincible.

That very plainly states that trojans do exist. You can't get much plainer than that. If someone chooses to read one sentence and ignore the rest of the post, that's their problem. It's not misleading to anyone who reads the entire post, even if they don't click on the link.

Well, what if I don't know what "trojans" are? To most people, there's no distinction between viruses, malware, trojans, worms, backdoors, or even phishing and spam. People's definition of a computer virus is: "something bad that infects my computer".

Let's say I am computer Illiterate. I look at this statement:

No viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any, since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install:

There seems to be two pieces of information there.
The first one is that there are no viruses for Mac OS X (I'm thinking: "Hooray, my mac cannot be infected").
The second one is that there's only a handful of trojans which can easily be avoided (I'm thinking: "Hm, don't know what these are, but it seems they're not as nasty as viruses and are quite rare, so hooray again. Well, that's all I need to know, looks like my Mac cannot be infected by viruses so I'm perfectly secure.")

 

[GGJstudios]

I did read it, but that's beside the point. Most other people won't.

You don't have any idea what "most other people" would or wouldn't do. Only someone very foolish would come to a forum, read the first sentence of one post, ignoring the rest, and make an assumption based on that. Someone foolish enough to do that is also likely foolish enough to install anything that pops up. There is no protection for someone like that. You can't protect a user from their own actions.

Let's say I am computer Illiterate.

If you're computer illiterate, you won't be on a Mac forum, reading threads about malware. If you are reading here, it's clear you want to learn some facts.

"Well, that's all I need to know, looks like my Mac cannot be infected by viruses so I'm perfectly secure."

I challenge you to find one person who would be on this forum who would make that assumption, based on only one sentence of a post.

My posts are not misleading. Your attempts to partially quote them and take them out of context is.

 

[gorskiegangsta]

You don't have any idea what "most other people" would or wouldn't do.

Or maybe I do, since I've been working at a local computer repair shop for the past 4 years and have encountered numerous individuals who are frustrated with their infected Windows machines and want to get a Mac because "they do not get viruses" which, in their mind, means any kind of malicious code.

Only someone very foolish would come to a forum, read the first sentence of one post, ignoring the rest, and make an assumption based on that. Someone foolish enough to do that is also likely foolish enough to install anything that pops up. There is no protection for someone like that. You can't protect a user from their own actions.

Agree 100%. Although you wouldn't believe how many people are like that

If you're computer illiterate, you won't be on a Mac forum, reading threads about malware. If you are reading here, it's clear you want to learn some facts.

Well, many people do find their way to these forums via searching Google for a specific question/issue. You may be right on the whole though.

I challenge you to find one person who would be on this forum who would make that assumption, based on only one sentence of a post.

How about this:

If macs could be infected with malware I'd think that would be it. Since they can't, good luck to you.

Look, I'm not trying to knock your efforts to help here. I hope you understand, I'm just trying to look at it from a noob's perspective

 

[GGJstudios]

Or maybe I do, since I've been working at a local computer repair shop for the past 4 years and have encountered numerous individuals ...

Well, I've been talking to and consulting for thousands of computer users, both Windows and Mac, since both were invented, but I'm not naive enough to claim that, because of that, I know what "most other people" would or wouldn't do.

The point is, if someone is intelligent enough to come to a Mac forum, looking for answers, they are likely also intelligent enough to read more than the first sentence of a post before drawing conclusions. This is especially true if they've heard "Macs don't get viruses" and they're coming to find out if that's true and why.