Originally posted by: Brazen
Originally posted by: Uber
1) There are a lot more Windows computers to infect
2) Beacuse of number 1, many viruses are written specifically to infect Windows
People keep saying this, but then, if Apache has like 70% of the webserver share, how come IIS is the one that keeps getting more viruses and exploits found?
Well in terms of exploits found Apache out paces IIS 6 by a wide margin.
This is probably partially why Apache is down closer to 60% market share instead of closer to 70% market share (Other things are that MS is cutting sweetheart deals with domain registers to move parked websites off of Apache and onto IIS and the rise in popularity if Microsoft's 'Live' service.)
Times change. MS did a pretty good job.
The reason you still see a lot worms is because IIS5 (w2k) was one of the most insecure peices of software ever created and many administrators are morons.
But ya the theory that MS Windows is subject to viruses (adware and spyware are pretty much the same thing in my book if installed without consent of owners) becuase it is popular is mostly BS. Not entirely, but mostly.
There was only realy one time that operating system vunerabilities caused windows-like worms and viruses to be found in the wild for Linux operating systems.. and that was because in a effort to make Linux easier to use Redhat used default installs that were insecure and had everything running by default. So as a result they had viruses and worms for Redhat, which is what most people used. This was around Redhat 6.0 and Redhat 7.0 days. That's about the time Redhat and friends learned that OSS != secure.
Since then they started concentrating on security more and people used secure default installs. We have had developments like static analysis tools, people doing audits for important and common software. Smash-stack protection and other things to counteract programmer mistakes like buffer overflows, etc etc.
Now Linux is much more popular, much more widely used, and is used by people much less technically able then the average Linux user back in 2000. Now there is hasn't been any viruses or any like that since then.
So that throws a big wrench in the popularity == vunerabilities/viruses theory.
(although there have been worms attacking insecure installations of PHP-based websites.. which generally run on Linux, but not always)
As for Macs... We will find out about those also. Apple sales have been past 10% of the desktop sales market for a while now. I think last time they sold 16% of new laptops or whatever.. which is the most popular segment of the market nowadays.