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A Six-Step Plan for Apple
An anonymous reader writes "Open letter from Alex Salkever to Jobs. One thing in particular strikes me: 'The latest round of attacks on Microsoft software is terrifying. If using a Mac means servers in Russia are less likely to harvest my passwords and offer my identity to the highest bidder, I think that's an offer I'd like to hear more about.' I think he's got something there."
According to these statistics Firefox's "obscurity" is disappearing quickly. We (Firefox users) currently hold 12.2% of the market, which is a 4% increase this year. Great news for us developers who are sick of IE work arounds.
"I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
Actually OSX does not require the admin's password. It requires the user's password, and that the user be approved to install software.
This is consistent with how SUID is designed to work.
-Rusty
You never know...
Even if that weren't a crap argument, which it is, that's no reason not to switch.
John Gruber effectively demolished that claim in this post.
You can most certainly install an application in Unix without needing an admin password. You just install it locally. Windows will ask you for a username and password if you attempt to run an install without having administrative rights. Of course many people just use accounts because it is easier. I have no confidence they wouldn't run as root if they had OS X or one of the Unices.
Reserved Word.
I'm speaking from a linux point of view; I would guess the Mac is similar.
> To install any new application in Mac OS X , the admin password must be input. Windows does not have this extra safeguard.
Umm... If you use Win2K+, it DOES have this safeguard. Unless you are already logged in as administrator, running a setup program brings up a prompt for the admin password.
Surprisingly a lower price than other light weight notebook competitors. With her student discount she will get a 1ghz G4 ibook with 12" screen, 512 megs of ram, 60 gig drive, combo DVD-ROM/cd burner, 802.11g, firewire, usb, etc. for just over $1200. It's unfortunate that Apple doesn't have competitive pricing for desktop models and other notebooks like they do for the 12" iBook. It's really the best bang for the buck in the light weight market now.
Less aggravation and thus lower TCO- On her current aging PC I had to clean viruses and spyware off at least a half dozen times. She just can't get it on the iBook(at least not yet at any rate). My experience with modern macs has been that once they're configured they work and stay that way. Her sister's iBook from three years ago is heavily used but still works just as good as it did on day 1.
Awesome MS Office ImplementationThe latest Office edition rocks and it's cheap for students too ($149). Completely compatible, and a lot more slick too.
It runs Unix :)
Apple would be best advised to begin touting the fact that these machines are really immune to the tons of crap that are being heaped on Windows units. If they can get their prices in line with the market, they'd have a slam dunk on their hands.
www.lonseidman.com
As far as I can tell, that graphical dialog asking for your password is probably just a "sudo" frontend, akin to the one I've also seen in KDE.
*nix systems tend to handle mutli-user environments much more gracefully. I run as a non-privilidged user on all *nix machines I touch. I tried to do the same thing in Win2K but ran in to so many hassles with it that I eventually gave up and followed the advice of more experienced Windows users - added my account to Administrators.
Most of the time you don't need to put in a password if you are an admin. You just drag the app to the Applications folder.
Also, it is not just security througth obscurity. Try portscanning a Windows box and a Mac with a default install.
Think there aren't a hundred Fortune 500 companies that would love to trade places with Apple? You'd be wrong.
Well, since Apple is number 301 on the list, I'm guessing numbers 1-300 would not be so fond of trading spots. But, yeah, numbers 302-500 are probably a little envious.
That concludes my obvious, snide geek comeback.
You're obviously a troll, but hell I'll bite.
1. Microsoft ships there entire Office suite for MacOS X (this includes Outlook, although it has been changed slightly in a few ways... 1. it works a lot better 2. it's called entourage)
2. Mac's still ship with IE- I suggest using that to connect to your Outlook Web Access
3. If you still feel the need to manage your money with a program like quicken find a more open alternative- GNUCash works really well for most simple operations.
4. The next time a large worm or virus decides to rock the corprate (read: windows) world sit back and laugh as your colleagues scamper about.
transmission_err
Macs ship with the root account disabled, and even if you're an admin user it still asks for your password to install programs globally.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
But Windows has everyone log in as an admin user by default!
"Admin" users on OS X are like regular users in the wheel group, while Admin users on Windows are like root.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
The other day I was in Boston (Davis Square, ~10:00pm) and walked by a coffee shop where there was a pretty good looking chick with a 15 inch Powerbook. Normally I wouldn't try to talk to a random girl, but it just so happened that I had my own Powerbook with me (in my backpack). I'm sure you will all believe me: had I not been in a rush at that minute, I would have gone in there to sit down next to her, open my own Powerbook to do some work, and comment on hers. And I probably would have at least got a decent conversation going. ("I've got a 17-incher"... :-D)
My point? My Mac opens up all sorts of interesting social scenarios, because they're rare enough that you instantly have something in common with someone else who's using one, and it's easy to tell when someone's using one. I wouldn't walk up to someone in a cafe with an Inspiron or Thinkpad or some crap and comment on its "design" or how 'awesome' it might be.
You should add them to the "Power Users" group for backwards compatibility. The PU group was created just for this reason. While it has quite a bit of access it doesn't have access to everything. For example the PU group has access to the %system% directory just like the Administrator. However it does not have access to write to the HKLM\...\run key which many viruses/worms/trojans/spyware adds an entry to to restart themselves when the computer boots.
Combining Netscape 7 in there - that's 13.7% for mozilla derivatives. That is impressive if it's true.
I'm wondering where they got these statistics. I couldn't find any discussion of this on the site. They don't seem to jive with the Google Zeitgeist. In the Google Zeitgeist, all Mozilla variants seem to fall into the "other" category. At the May 2004 point, the other category seems to have a lower percentage than both IE 5 and IE 5.5 on Google. In contrast, the w3schools statistics say that Mozilla by itself is higher than all IE 5 browsers combined. Is this really only visitors to the w3schools site?
Also, looking at the second hit returned from a "browser statistics" query on Google highlights the uncertainty around this. They list 5 different sources of browser statistics that vary wildly. Here's the link.
With all the hubub over IE, it seems like there would be more discussion over this. Is the only way these statistics are being collected is from the useragent string? Are there any statistics on how often this string is being spoofed?
Never underestimate the power of fiber.
To install most new applications on Mac OS X, you drag the application's icon to your hard disk.
To install something that includes a system extension (ie something installed in /System or /Library) you need to enter an administrator's password. That's pretty much the only time.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
You do not need an admin account to install programs globally. You just drag them to your hard disk to a directory that's accessable globally (say, /Applications.) You will not be prompted for your password. You might want to prove this for yourself. Go to a Mac. Download Firebird. Double click on the .dmg to open it. Drag the Firebird icon to /Applications. That's it, you're done. Did you enter a password?
The only time you're prompted for a password is if you're installing a system extension (or an application that includes a system extension.)
Now, some would argue this is ok because nothing that isn't a system extension will open automatically. I personally disagree, after all, if I always run Safari, and some malware works by removing Safari.app and replacing it with an identical program called Safari.app that invokes the "real" Safari.app after making sure its little daemon is running, then what's the difference?
OS X has potential holes. They're not being exploited at the moment, but right now the wrong thing to do is to pretend they do not exist and allow people to be kept off guard.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
She was initially opposed to the mac until she looked at the following benefits
Before you buy, consider this. My girlfriend recently switched from PC to Mac, too. She had about $1300 and got an old-model refurbished (they call them "refreshed" at the Apple Stores) 12" Powerbook. Faster bus, better screen, and same 60G/512MB as the iBook your girlfriend is contemplating.
When you get to the store, make sure to ask about the refreshed units in stock. They, too, qualify for the educational discount and have the same standard 1-year warranty. With the money she saves, she can get 2 years of AppleCare if she's nervous, or a copy of Office or something.
As a side note, one of my friends got a 15" PowerBook from the same Apple Store. It was the model before the 1.5 GHz speed bump, so it was like $200 less. The Apple Store also knocked an additional $100 off because, get this, the packaging was damaged.
blog
Go to a Mac. Download Firebird. Double click on the .dmg to open it. Drag the Firebird icon to /Applications. That's it, you're done. Did you enter a password?
Yes, I did. You might want to double-check that your account does not have admin privileges. Mine doesn't, and installing an app globally does require me to enter a password.
If I remember correctly, market share is calculated from the total number of computers sold. This is fine with PC's that have to be replaced every 1.5 years or so. However, Macs they tend to be used much longer than that.
One of Apple's biggest markets is 'artistic' or 'creative' users. Once those people spend the time and energy to learn a computer, they stay with it. It still does the job they paid for it to do, why replace it just because there is something newer and faster?
The Macs in our house are 3.5 and 8 years old and both are still used every day!
Market share does not reflect this longer life span of Apple computers. To accurately show the ratio of Macs vs PCs being used, some measure of useful life time must be included in the calculation, not just number of units sold. I would expect the acutal 'usage share' of Macs to be between 10% and 20%, just because the Macs have a much longer useful life.
Maybe the cost comparisons between Macs and PCs should also be adjusted to reflect this difference. Would you rather pay $1000 for a PC that needs to be replaced no later than 2006 ($500 per year) or $1500 for a Mac that can still be doing the job you bought it for in 2010 ($250 per year)?
I think the letter is naive. It shows a total misunderstanding of Apples market placement or business.
Apple play to the high end of the market. They don't make their profit by selling lots of machines, they make it by selling few machines at a higher margin. Selling to the lower end would kill Apple for sure. They're smarter than that!!
The only problem I have with it is users don't have a choice. You get OS X and are forced to use iMovie and iTunes
<sarcasm>Yeah, I really hate that menacing guy that came with my Mac, who flicks my earlobe really hard when I try to use other music playing and movie editing software.</sarcasm>
What the fuck are you talking about, you idiot? Apple doesn't force you to do shit. You don't like an app the Mac comes with, drag it to the Trash and it's gone, and you're free to download and use something else.
Let's see you do that with, say, IE or Outlook Express on Windows, to name two. You may choose to not use them, but good luck uninstalling them.
First--you're making the far-too-common mistake of equating "market share" with "installed base". They're not the same. Market share means what percent of computers being sold are Macs. Installed base means what percent of computers being used are Macs. The latter number is much higher than the former. This is largely because Macs last longer than PCs.
Second, perhaps you should think about just what "sheep" means. It means following the majority opinion without thinking for yourself. Your answer sounds very much like the majority opinion--speaking of a 1% marketshare, when most unbiased estimates put it at at least 3 to 4 times that, saying that raising marketshare is the only way to "save" Apple--and most importantly, thinking that a low marketshare means that Apple needs to be saved.
Here's a hint: it doesn't.
Apple's doing just fine.
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
the hassles in running as a 'limited user' on a Windows box. Security in Windows (and the software itself!) isn't robust enough to allow users to install an application to their home directory and allow it access only to that user's registry. Oh, the woes of the registry!
.dll's there.
.dll's into my system directory, add themselves to my startup, and run in the background without my knowledge.
In WinXP, no one writes software to be run in limited user mode. Many programs take extensive setup, after-the-fact registry hacking, and all kinds of permissions twiddling just to make them WORK when you're not an administrator. And even then, they're not always multi-user safe. Why should I have to install additional software to let users burn CD's, Nero? Why are even power users and administrators allowed to randomly drag stuff in and out of %systemroot%\system32? In reality, I have no problem with dragging and dropping, but Javascript programs and IE have no business making
If you install an app, it should be accessible in your userspace, no hassle. If you want something entered that affects all users, you should be prompted, password or not. Granted, most people would still click "OK", but I'm tired of having exploits pop malicious
When diligence and a top-notch working knowledge of the system are no longer enough to protect you, something's obviously broken. We're no longer looking at simple "Click me and win!" viruses -- newer viruses hop around the network at will. Simply plugging a box without the latest Windows Updates into the network, you'll catch a virus.
I'm typing this from a WinXP box, but each week that goes by, I put more money into my Mac savings jar than the last.
--Jasin Natael
True science means that when you re-evaluate the evidence, you re-evaluate your faith.
While it'd be unfair to describe him as hostile to FOSS, he certainly avoids it in part, I believe, because of the overly heavy and often inappropriate, advocacy he sees.
Take note people. All too much advocacy is done in a foaming mouth-zealot kind of way instead of calm, explaining and moreover when appropriate.
"how about the original?"
Uh, you mean I should just drag it into "drwxrwxr-x 40 root admin 1K 16 Jun 10:54 /Applications"?
Nothing magic about this, just good old unix permissions. The closest thing to magic is that if I attempt to drag something in there as a non-admin user, the Finder won't just fail with an error; it will pause, ask me for an admin user's auth, and proceed if I can supply it. Which of course is not technically groundbreaking, just good design.
" You can most certainly install an application in Unix without needing an admin password. You just install it locally. Windows will ask you for a username and password if you attempt to run an install without having administrative rights. Of course many people just use accounts because it is easier. I have no confidence they wouldn't run as root if they had OS X or one of the Unices."
Simple: OS X does not allow you to set up a root account.
You can do it, but you have to go to Netinfo manager and set one up, and have to be a nerd to know how to log in to it (tell it to have you type username and password instead of click on it, and type root, otherwise it doesn't show up). The average user isn't confronted with the choice to be root user, and almost no Mac users run as root. Most Mac experts recommend never running as root- on the Macworld forums I once suggested someone fix a problem with an undeletable file by deleting it as root, and other people recommended not to do so because root is dangerous for a non-geek user (can delete system folder, for example).
A normal user has no clue there even exists the CHOICE of running as root- a nerd can figure out how to do it easily. The DEFAULT account in OS X is not root. On the other hand, the default account in Windows is an admin.
Yeah, I can buy one, but I shouldn't have to for what I'm paying. And what about for my Powerbook? $3000 and no means to add a button to the touchpad = annoyed me.
I just installed SideTrack
Now the right edge of my pad is a vertical scroll section.
The top left corner activates expose's show all windows (F9)
The bottom left corner is a right click
...and that's all there is to it.