Why is MAC preffered?

[18114]

Hello,

My professor asked this question in our computer science class and not a single one could give an answer. I tried Googling for it, but I just results on the working of Mac. Would any one please state a few pro's of Mac OS vs. Windows?


Thanks.

 

[Zugzwang152]

Originally posted by: 18114
Hello,

My professor asked this question in our computer science class and not a single one could give an answer. I tried Googling for it, but I just results on the working of Mac. Would any one please state a few pro's of Mac OS vs. Windows?


Thanks.

1. Security.

 

[spherrod]

mac v windows

First Google result

http://www.xvsxp.com/

 

[Zugzwang152]

Originally posted by: spherrod
mac v windows

First Google result

http://www.xvsxp.com/

Pay attention to this

 

[biostud]

Bling Bling

 

[Kevin]

I think preferred by who is an important question as well. I personally haven't used a Mac in 8 years and to me, it wasn't anything special compared to Windows (at that time). After spending the weekend messing around with Ubuntu, I'd have to say comparing Mac to Windows is a waste of time...

 

[18114]

I was looking for something general.

Like , if it was the case of Linux , the obvious answer would be because its open source. Anyways, guess I'll have to ask him about it.

Thanks for your replies though.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: 18114
I was looking for something general.

Like , if it was the case of Linux , the obvious answer would be because its open source. Anyways, guess I'll have to ask him about it.

I guess the 1 line summary is:

Cuz it offers the ease-of-use and applications (ie. MS Office, iLife, Photoshop etc.) of a mainstream non-geek OS, yet still retains all the power of *nix, since it IS a unix.

(P.S. Darwin, which is the base layer of Mac OS X, is open source too.)

 

[mdchesne]

security
reliability
no viruses, no spam, no trojans
better processing power
unix-based for increased networking ability (window's can't connect to sh1t)
flexibility among home-, work, and network-based applications and functions

 

[mdchesne]

Originally posted by: Zugzwang152

Originally posted by: spherrod
mac v windows

First Google result

http://www.xvsxp.com/

Pay attention to this

i disagree most strongly with "logon security". there is NO WAY windows is more secure in logon than mac. I've been able to hack past post screen logons, network logons and the most basic windows logon screen, but i was never able to decrypt the mac password. i think there's something up with that site's system of judging that makes a bit of a bias or not a fully-tested result

 

[Nothinman]

I'v ebeen able to hack past post screen logons, networked logons and the most basic windows logon screen,

In what? Win98?

 

[mdchesne]

everything up to xp. i've tried longhorn beta but i couldn't get the darned thing to work (this was back in 2004)

 

[Nothinman]

Then how were you "hacking" past the login screens?

 

[mdchesne]

boot disks with certain executables. basically reroute the password so you don't need to implement it in post. really no hacking involved in that department. but you still get into their home directory regardless of any password they set. I have yet to get into a mac user's home directory using a bootable disk

 

[mdchesne]

er, hacking was a bad phrase to use. cracking. now that's more like it.

lol, or if you really want to use a hardcore "hacking" method, just reset CMOS

 

[DnetMHZ]

Originally posted by: mdchesne
boot disks with certain executables. basically reroute the password so you don't need to implement it in post. really no hacking involved in that department. but you still get into their home directory regardless of any password they set. I have yet to get into a mac user's home directory using a bootable disk

With physical access to the box you can "hack" just about any OS

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: mdchesne
er, hacking was a bad phrase to use. cracking. now that's more like it.

lol, or if you really want to use a hardcore "hacking" method, just reset CMOS

You obviously have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

 

[Kilrsat]

The fact that you knew there were boot disks which would allow you to change a Windows password, but didn't know that these same tools exist for a *nix system shows your *vast* knowledge on the subject.

 

[Nothinman]

boot disks with certain executables. basically reroute the password so you don't need to implement it in post. really no hacking involved in that department. but you still get into their home directory regardless of any password they set. I have yet to get into a mac user's home directory using a bootable disk

That doesn't count and there are plenty of bootable PPC Linux disks to break into Macs with.

 

[mdchesne]

i'm not saying macs can't be cracked into, i'm simply saying windows has far more options to get past login than mac which goes back to my first point. the fact that if you have physical access to the box, well duh, yea you get get into it. that's why i listed it as a joke. laugh

because there are more options to get past windows than mac supports my initial claim that windows IS NOT more secure on lgin security than mac. to expand this, would you also support the idea that windows is more secure on login than a unix terminal? of course not, that's why anyone who's intelligent will uses a unix network. Since mac is unix-based and uses unix encryption, mac is by far more secure than windows. it's not uncrackable, but it is better than a meesly 7 on that chart. windows should be mroe like a 5

 

[prometheusxls]

My $.02,

For a client OS I am not sure mac is preffered.

Good things about Windows:
Much more versatility in temrs of COTS applications. This is especially true for specific disciplines where MAC is not supported at all.

MS office. Guranteed file type compatibility. If you send a resume from a Open office document and convert it to DOC you know what I mean. It doesn't look quite right. I know mac has office but I am not sure what the interopperability is.

Some / Many websites "require" IE and IE is nolonger supported for MAC.

XP has IMO a lower training requirement for users.

The good points for Mac:

All things being equal the Mac will have better performance than windows. (Note: PCs have better hardware which balances this out.)

A more reliable OS. Windows willl screw up 10x more than Mac. However This is blanced out by the sheer numebr of crappy apps out there for both platforms. IMO Apps screw up about 100x more frequently than the OS screws up. There is no way arround crapy apps. Mac may have an even bigger problem in this respect than windows becuase of the lower level of support given to a smaller user base. In reality a corrupt OS isn't a big deal becuase of the speed of recovery with hard disk images.

There are less viruses written for mac. I hesitate to call this a security feature. However it does effectivly reduce the impact of idiot users.

Some special applications such as design, video, and photo work the mac has better support and performance.

Notes:
The "hacking" into the PC with a bootdisk with NTFS support isn't a hack or a crack, and its not a security hole either. If the person wanted to protect their files they would either set permissions (so only they or an administrator can view files) or encrypt their files (so only they can view their files). Either will require a password (if they bothered to set that).

 

[mdchesne]

nothinman, that is true, but who knows about specific executables that do this? I bet you sk any 10 year old and he can list off 3 .bat's that can get past post. ask any 5 year old and they'll tell you how to log in safe mode to get past the standard login window. ask any 15 year old and he'll tell you how to remotely access a user's directory.

ask anyone under 18 and they won't have an idea on how to get into an encrypted mac. unless, of course, they have extensive unix architeture experience. It takes alot of skill to manually decrpyt a password from the bank seeing as no program CAN decrypt a unix-encrypted password. a mac bootable..sure, but who has a mac cracker floppy lying around? I have about 12 various windows floppies.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: prometheusxls
MS office. Guranteed file type compatibility. If you send a resume from a Open office document and convert it to DOC you know what I mean. It doesn't look quite right. I know mac has office but I am not sure what the interopperability is.

Office Mac 2004 vs. Office XP is about as different as Office XP on Windows vs. Office 2000 on Windows in terms of interoperability.

The biggest issue with Office Mac 2004 is that it's a bit slow compared to the Windows version. The good news is that Office looks much prettier on the Mac.

 

[Kilrsat]

Originally posted by: mdchesne
It takes alot of skill to manually decrpyt a password from the bank seeing as no program CAN decrypt a unix-encrypted password.

Apparently you've never heard of John the Ripper. Again, if you don't know much about the subject don't go aroung proclaiming the security aspects of each system.

 

[mdchesne]

Originally posted by: Kilrsat

Originally posted by: mdchesne
It takes alot of skill to manually decrpyt a password from the bank seeing as no program CAN decrypt a unix-encrypted password.

Apparently you've never heard of John the Ripper. Again, if you don't know much about the subject don't go aroung proclaiming the security aspects of each system.

do you know HOW to decrpyt a mac, linux, unix password? because each password is encrypted using it's own unique process for each system, no one program can decrypt every password. That's why those OSes are so secure. the only way to do it is to access the password bank through root or faking a user account. Then you have to manually enter a whole buttload of random words and try to get the encrypted word to look similar to the encrypted password. Eventually with enough patience and a simple-enough password can you find the password itself. regardless of what you say, it DOES take skill



and yes, i've heard of john the ripper. it's a weak password cracking program. in fact, it even says that itself

"John the Ripper is a fast password cracker, currently available for many flavors of Unix (11 are officially supported, not counting different architectures), DOS, Win32, BeOS, and OpenVMS. Its primary purpose is to detect weak Unix passwords"

if your password is "god" or "root" or "sex", then yes, it can find that simple of encrypted password. hell, i could just by guessing. those are some of the top 20 passwords used. but let that retard of a program try to deencrypt passwords such as m2niKk82/[[1' and see how far it goes before crapping out