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Windows vs Mac Security

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the lauchded-into-a-fit-of-rage dept.

sdhorne writes "There is a good technical discussion over at InfoWorld on the merits of launchd and what is lacking in a comparable Windows secure solution. It is a throw back to the UNIX vs Windows security discussion that has been hashed out for many years." From the article: "it always traces back to Microsoft's untenable policy of maintaining gaps in Windows security to avoid competing with 3rd party vendors and certified partners. Apple's taking a different approach: What users need is in the box: Anti-virus, anti-spam, encryption, image backup and restore, offsite safe storage through .Mac, and launchd. Pretty soon any debate with Microsoft over security can be ended in one round when Apple stands up, says 'launchd', and sits back down."

4 of 513 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Well written, but by alps · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://developer.apple.com/macosx/launchd.html

  2. What's launchd? by peterdaly · · Score: 5, Informative

    Was I the only Mac user who didn't know what launchd was off the top of my head?

    In Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, Apple introduced a new system startup program called launchd. The launchd daemon takes over many tasks from cron, xinetd, mach_init, and init, which are UNIX programs that traditionally have handled system initialization, called systems scripts, run startup items, and generally prepared the system for the user. And they still exist on Mac OS X Tiger, but launchd has superseded them in many instances. These venerable programs are widely used by system administrators, open source developers, managers of web services, even consumers who want to use cron to manage iCal scheduling, and they can still be called with launchd.

    The launchd daemon also provides a big performance boost to your system. At any given time, only those daemons that are actually used are launched; combined with the fact that daemons can shut themselves down and be relaunched as needed means that you can reduce the average memory footprint of the system.

    http://developer.apple.com/macosx/launchd.html

    --
    Soccer Goal Plans
  3. Re:Well written, but by macshome · · Score: 5, Informative

    Pimping myself here a bit, but our article on launchd might be of more help to sysadmins. It later formed the basis for the wikipedia article and has thrilling Jordan Hubbard comments to boot!

  4. Re:Market Share by Bartman_279 · · Score: 5, Informative
    If OSX had that kind of a market share, youd bet your ass that everyone would be breaking down its walls, in exactly the same way.

    There are PLENTY of hackers out there, of every level, who would absolutely love to be able to point to themselves as the first "l33t hax0r" to write a real world OS X virus and "wipe that stupid little grin off their [Mac user's] smug little faces."

    And in the six years OS X has been out, not one, NOT ONE, has succeeded.