Why arent MacS able to get viruses?

Answer 1

Good question. I've heard several "theories" about that. One is that the proprietary nature of Apple products makes their security technology less available to hackers. Another is that as Apple only has about 10% of the market, hackers generally don't want to waste their time developing viruses that would only impact a small portion of the computer industry. Another is that a lot of hackers have a certain personal enmity against Bill Gates, Microsoft, and others who they feel are trying to dominate the industry and freeze the little guys (like themselves) out. Whatever is behind it, it's true...Macs have very few problems of this nature. I have a Mac and I love it!

AnswerTechnically it's not "the rest". All of the Microsoft series of Operating systems tend to be very prone to viruses. IBM compatible hardware is no more prone to viruses than the apple series or mainframes, but the Operating system and many of the applications certainly are. Microsoft Outlook is almost a virus magnet.

If you want to run a PC based system that is effectively virus proof, try Linux or any of the commercial Unix products. Linux and Unix are even more virus resistant than the Mac.

Answer

See the link below that addresses differences between Windows and Linux. This report highlights many inherent design flaws that make the system vulnerable and hard to stabilize:

Windows has only recently evolved from a single-user design to a multi-user model

Windows is Monolithic by Design, not Modular

Windows Depends Too Heavily on the RPC model

Windows focuses on its familiar graphical desktop interface

Answer 2

Computer Viruses do attack Mac computers. The biggest difference is that there are so many more Windows computers that most computer criminals write their virus to attack the Windows operating system.

Answer 3

Because very few viruses can be written in a way to infect both macs and pcs, and since there are many more pcs out there, that's usually what they write for.

Answer Macs are just as able to get viruses as any other computer. Macs, however, have an operating system that is different than the Windows systems run by most other PCs

At present, Macintoshes represent only about 6% of the computers in use, worldwide.
In the US, only about 10% of computers hooked up to the internet.
Since most viruses are propagated thru the internet, any virus written to attack Macs has only a one in ten chance of finding another mac to infect.
The result of that is that the MAC virus can not achieve the chain reaction effect that you see in PC viruses.

As in real disease, a population of people or computers, must have a certain threshold percentage of vulnerable individuals for any virus to propagate wildly.

Answer 4

Although often referred to as computer viruses most viruses are Windows viruses that exploit the many weak points in the Windows operating system. The virus can be installed without the knowledge of the user (equally Microsoft can install updates to the operating system without a users knowledge or authorisation) whereas with Mac OS X an admin has to authorise the installation. Mac OS X has a separate area for the essential operating system files that cannot be accessed unless a user logs in with a Root user account and so they cannot be manipulated by a virus. With a Windows machine software known as a RootKit can replace such vital system executables and hide the fact that they are being manipulated from the user. (See links below)

Answer 5

Mac is virus free because firstly, they got a small market share. Virus writers would rather focus on Windows to control large number of computers because that's what the majority is using. Next, Mac OS X, with its Unix-based file system and kernel, is harder to infect with a self-replicating program.

Answer 6

There is less protection for Mac computers than Windows computers because, frankly, Windows releases too many updates to their operating systems without first fixing all the problems with previous releases, thus allowing hackers and other online "bad guys" a chance to break into computers and take over. Mac users have only been around for about a decade, and there were never really enough of them to make them a big enough target for hackers and people who create viruses and malware.

Answer 7

because they are cooler than pcs