By 2005, most ATMs will be running on Windows. Most PocketPCs are Windows. Microsoft is selling a version for cell phones. Most local, state, and federal government agencies run all their computers on Windows. Most businesses run on Windows. The US Navy even has an all-digital ship running on Windows. Yet, Microsoft can’t even stop putting huge security holes in its software.
Doesn’t anybody else think that standardizing every piece of electronic equipment that runs our increasingly digital-dependent society on one bug-ridden, security-flawed operating system is a bad idea?
Conversations like this always make me wonder if I’m schizophrenic.
I’m a Microsoft fan in the sense that I admire people like Bill Gates who know how to make money, and I’m always mildly amused by the governent and others who try to stop him from doing so.
That said, I detest Windoze products and embrace the Mac OS, even though I have little or no admiration for the folk who run the company.
Ah, well. Some things are mysteries.
What’s amazing about Bill Gates is that he became the richest man in America convincing people to buy his inferior products over clearly superior ones. That’s marketing.
I will say this about Mac OS. Because Apple can tightly control the software and hardware, there are fewer concessions made to accommodate varieties of hardware for it to run on. I think even if it were most popular it would be harder to exploit (though not impossible.) That said, there hasn’t been a Mac-specific virus in years. Not one. Even considering the difference in market size, you’d think that there are enough script kiddies out there who are anti-Mac types that they would have found security exploits if they were there. Even one virus. But they haven’t.
Even so, I don’t think it would be good if everything ran on Mac OS either. I think the world would be better off with a variety of operating systems running things.