Anyone can submit patches upstream to Android's code base. You can compile your own fork, and then flash your phone with it. The SDK is free. People are already distributing modified versions of it.
It doesn't have a huge community of OSS developers, but that doesn't mean that Google or the OHA failed to do anything.
This is exactly why Android may fail in the long term. It will fragment into so many different flavours, just like Linux on the desktop, that it will be too hard for developers to know which one to target.
Despite all the people who like to quote Charlie Miller and your own "Let me tell you how...", it is not trivial to crack a Mac...period! Ten plus years of Mac OS X proves it. What's Windows' track record been over the past ten years...yeah, I thought so!
Regarding your opinion of Mac users...give me a break. The average Mac user is no different than the average Windows user and that's because both operating systems are marketed to the same user base. The problem is that the average Windows user has a false sense of security because they think that if they run anti-virus they'll be safe whereas the average Mac user doesn't run anti-virus but they also know better than to click on any link sent to them or download and install any piece of software that comes their way. Regarding Linux users, of course they're aware of security but then again, it's not your average user that runs linux on the desktop.
As for Viruses on the Mac, Apple is correct...there are none. And no, Apple hasn't been pontificating this for 10-20 years. They alluded to the fact that Windows was susceptible to hundreds of thousands of viruses and that they did not affect the Mac and this was in a commercial back in 2006. Go look it up, the commercial is called Viruses. There is nothing in that commercial that wasn't true back then isn't still true today.
The truth of the matter is that there have been a couple of Trojans that barely registered a blip on the Mac and, as you've alluded, required user intervention to get installed but the kind of drive-by infections that have plagued Windows users for years just don't happen on the Mac.
That's funny.
I just did the same thing using a Mac running Mac OS X 10.5.8 and Safari 4.0.4. I clicked on a whole bunch of links and guess what?
NOTHING HAPPENED!
(Hint. Don't Use IE, don't use Windows)
...when it comes to security measures, Apple is now at the point where Microsoft was in 1998.
You guys modded this insightful. I think he was going for funny.
Microsoft didn't catch up to the security of the Mac OS until Vista. Up to that point, all you had to do was turn on a Windows box and connect it to the Internet and wait to get owned. Some point out that the turning point for Microsoft was SP2 for XP but all that did was turn the firewall on by default. It did not address the inherent insecurity of the operating system.
So no, Apple was never and never will be as bad as Microsoft was when it comes to security.
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Anyone can submit patches upstream to Android's code base. You can compile your own fork, and then flash your phone with it. The SDK is free. People are already distributing modified versions of it.
It doesn't have a huge community of OSS developers, but that doesn't mean that Google or the OHA failed to do anything.
This is exactly why Android may fail in the long term. It will fragment into so many different flavours, just like Linux on the desktop, that it will be too hard for developers to know which one to target.
Now you're just making stuff up.
Despite all the people who like to quote Charlie Miller and your own "Let me tell you how...", it is not trivial to crack a Mac...period! Ten plus years of Mac OS X proves it. What's Windows' track record been over the past ten years...yeah, I thought so!
Regarding your opinion of Mac users...give me a break. The average Mac user is no different than the average Windows user and that's because both operating systems are marketed to the same user base. The problem is that the average Windows user has a false sense of security because they think that if they run anti-virus they'll be safe whereas the average Mac user doesn't run anti-virus but they also know better than to click on any link sent to them or download and install any piece of software that comes their way. Regarding Linux users, of course they're aware of security but then again, it's not your average user that runs linux on the desktop.
As for Viruses on the Mac, Apple is correct...there are none. And no, Apple hasn't been pontificating this for 10-20 years. They alluded to the fact that Windows was susceptible to hundreds of thousands of viruses and that they did not affect the Mac and this was in a commercial back in 2006. Go look it up, the commercial is called Viruses. There is nothing in that commercial that wasn't true back then isn't still true today.
The truth of the matter is that there have been a couple of Trojans that barely registered a blip on the Mac and, as you've alluded, required user intervention to get installed but the kind of drive-by infections that have plagued Windows users for years just don't happen on the Mac.
That's funny. I just did the same thing using a Mac running Mac OS X 10.5.8 and Safari 4.0.4. I clicked on a whole bunch of links and guess what? NOTHING HAPPENED! (Hint. Don't Use IE, don't use Windows)
No NCSA Mosaic would be a Model-T. IE 6 is a friggin Edsel.
When are they going to finally dump the '.org' from the name. This is an application after all not a web site. Who came up with that anyway?
...when it comes to security measures, Apple is now at the point where Microsoft was in 1998.
You guys modded this insightful. I think he was going for funny. Microsoft didn't catch up to the security of the Mac OS until Vista. Up to that point, all you had to do was turn on a Windows box and connect it to the Internet and wait to get owned. Some point out that the turning point for Microsoft was SP2 for XP but all that did was turn the firewall on by default. It did not address the inherent insecurity of the operating system. So no, Apple was never and never will be as bad as Microsoft was when it comes to security.