Apple update purges 21 security vulns from OS X Apple has issued updates that patch 21 security holes in a wide range of software and services contained in the latest Mac operating system. The worst of the flaws allow miscreants to remotely install malware on a machine with little or no action required by the user. Among them are vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash, which were …
Oh my god...I am flabergasted by the sheer number of computer illiterates still out there.
People, Apple is just a marketing company and that's all.
I am truly amazed that people buy these obsolete buggy iGarbage from apple...Hats off to their marketing department for conning and brainwashing so many idiots out there...But, I bought an HP iPaq for a couple of hundred dollars - it came with a phone, full featured GPS with voice directions, and oh yea a full Windows Mobile OS long before Crapple's iPhone ever existed.
And why would anyone pay over $3000 for a crippled, obsolete-out-of the box Apple Mac OS X computer? I bought an HP pavillion laptop, fully loaded, with DVD/Blue Ray, Super Hi-res wide screen, 2 Gig RAM, HD Tuner, built-in web cam etc. etc. etc. for under $1000
And Apple Mac OS X is based on FreeBSD, an open-source Unix look-alike, available FREE for the PC back in 1992, with a artsy-fartsy GUI. Whoopy Doo..
It is too expensive, too buggy, and the only software available is a bunch of dinky puzzles written by 14 year olds. No engineering or scientific applications available for "Mac OS X"...
Apple has a long history of fraud, racism and corruption...Steve Jobs and Nancy Heinen (and her shyster subordinates) are both knowing criminal participants in the stock options scam, and were caught trying to cover it up.
They were caught red-handed in early 2006 when a former employee who was cheated out of all of his stock after being wrongfully dismissed, filed a lawsuit against Apple Con-puter.
In short, dont waste your time and money on apple...
PS: If Apple was supposed to be "invulnerable" to viruses, why are there so many security fixes being passed around? Even with all of Apple's virus and spyware vulnerabilities...which i'Tard would target a virus against an con-puter "OS" used by 2% of people out there?
because they don't want a "computer", they want a "status symbol". it isn't a recent phenomenon. since the days of yore (circa 2001), people have bought Macs because they "look cool", it has nothing to do with function (yeah whatever there are people who buy Macs for photo/video/design work in general - YOU'RE A MINORITY)
I compare this with my old hairdresser (strange: analogy). she was fit, obsessed with image, and owned a mac, but couldn't use it to do anything apart from email. she also drove a vee-dub beetle. yeah, one of those ones with the compulsory flower on the dash (furthermore, in a lovely shade of yellow). i see a correlation:
"appearance obsessed idiots" : "i want to buy a mac"
TO CLARIFT I'm not trying to say all Mac users are poncey(sp?) faggots. just most of them. these days, any sensible non-tech user buys a netbook right? they're all the rage, aren't they? "i dont have a real computer, I have a netbook, it's like a computer, but I can use an open source OS without slapping a big yellow label on my head that reads 'I'm a fanboi freetard'".
I have this plan, right, I'm gonna revolutionise the world. basically, it involves squirrels. they will be the new form of technology. three squirrels taped together == netbook. eight squirrels glued together == Dell XPS. fifteen squirrels glued to your face == slow painful death. people will buy it though, cause I'm gonna make death by squirrel face cool.
you know how? I'll make a facebook app that interlinks with some other "cloud computing" "things", and I'll charge a $100 for it, and I'll make it available on the iTunes store. The fact that it is slow suicide won't matter, because it's on the iTunes store. if it's on there, it will be sweet, yeah?
POWER TO THE SLOW-DEATH-BY-SQUIRREL-APP
Must be great to see the world in black and white like that.
I'm certainly not gonna be taking Vista boxes loaded with realtime audio software out gigging, but hey, what do I know? I own macs as well as suns, generic PCs and an old alpha. Despite my degree in computer science, I'm clearly computer-illiterate, as I was enough of a dog's pocket to choose the right tool for the job. Next time, I'll just take a soapbox and rant, I guess.
(Before anyone asks, yes, I know freenixes rock, I love them to death and use linux and *BSD regularly, but there's no good software for 'em that does what the fancy Native Instruments titles manage, and yeah, I did try 'em on 'doze too- waaay too many inconsistent behaviours)
"PS: If Apple was supposed to be "invulnerable" to viruses, why are there so many security fixes being passed around? Even with all of Apple's virus and spyware vulnerabilities...which i'Tard would target a virus against an con-puter "OS" used by 2% of people out there?" .... By Anonymous Coward Posted Tuesday 16th December 2008 01:24 GMT
QuITe Simply, Someone Guaranteeing that no one is left behind, AC.
Although others might say someone ensuing that no one is immune or escapes from ...... well, it would be most accurately and succinctly described as Remote Reprogramming.
Things have moved on, more than just a little, from these earlier times ..... http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html ....... with Facilities, Applications, Techniques, Methodologies, Algorithms and Networking which are probably Best Beta Classified "Out of this World" and thus Highly Prized in Secure CyberIntelAIgent Arenas .... which as far as you may know have been long Registered as Turing Colossea of Magical Mystery.
What you can be sure of though, is that it is not hampered by, nor does it dance to failed and failing Systems which Capitalise and Concentrate Enterprise rather than Nurture and Network it with IT and Media. ......... which would be urVirtual Governance by Proxy, XXXXtraordinarily rendering individual national governments, mere puppets on the InterNetional Stage ............which is Best Imagined as a House of Many Mansions in these Changing Times.
First the Banks, then the Funds, then ...... Sweet Surrender to A.N.Other Sociable System or further Blind Lemming Panic over the Cliff and into the Abyss ..... which is your Democratic Free Choice to make but which you elect to be made for you by .... the Psychologically Flawed and Politically Inept ...... thus really just a Wannabe Dictatorship.
And here is some appropriate Song accompaniment ........ http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tFBKV0zVXSE.
Does that make me an "appearance obsessed idiot" or "poncey(sp?) faggot"?
Grow up you Anonymous Cowards... It's a computer for crying out loud.
Why get so upset about the type of computer someone uses?
I've had my Macbook for just over two years... I *really* like the O/S - I'm a Windows "techie" with 15 years experience that wanted something different to "use" at home - it's just a shame that the quality of the hardware is not up to the big boys of the PC world (I've had problems with the external plastics cracking - sorted under Warranty though).
However my overall feeling is that I made a good choice. It's very rare that anything bad happens with the O/S, so I just get on with USING the machine, rather than tinkering or fixing it.
Unless you're the rare Unix geek who loves meddling under the bonnet, I think you'll find that most Mac users are just that... Users. They want a computer that they can just USE to accomplish whatever task they need to complete. They don't want to have to bugger about... It needs to just work, and that's something the Mac does very well.
Don't knock it until you've tried it guys... It is a very good system.
True, but you have to admit that "Death by squirrel face" was particularly bonkers.
As soon as I saw this story I just saw the fanboi's on both sides lining up to blast/defend OS/X. Personally I'm not a mac fan and think they are overpriced, but let us just face the fact that any OS has its vulnerabilities once enough people decide to try and find them.
I want Unix on a laptop. My choices are 1) Tadpole (expensive and obsolete) 2) Linux (which in 2008 still hasn't solved basic laptop functionality such as Wifi and suspend/resume and probably never will) 3) Mac (wins hands down).
And given that Macs happily run Mathematica and Informix (and piles of other Unix apps) I'm not sure where the myth they've no software comes from.
(If you do want Linux on a laptop the only sane way to do it is OSX or Windows + some sort of VM + linux running full-screen and pretend you don't have a real OS in the background doing all the tricky bits)
Oh please, don't that's just too funny.
And Microsoft are what then?
One of the biggest thugs the market place has ever seen. Bribing, corrupting, lying, market rigging, politician buying, competition stifling imbeciles.
At least when Apple says "it just works" you know you can rely on it.
As an alternative to 13 years (at least) of "this time it's even faster and even more secure" followed by endless crashes, infections, incompatibility, buggered drivers, no drivers and obscene prices for a jumped up Office suite, constant need for better hardware to get almost the same functionality and hopeless OS releases.
When was the last time Apple had to put stickers on computers claiming compatibility with the latest OS and then had to admit they'd lied about it all? When did they last have to fudge sales figures to pretend their new OS was selling faster than cold dog turds?
Apple produce what Microsoft have claimed to produce. That's why it costs more. Grow up and buy one.
Just me or are the Anti Apple/MS pro OSS/Linux/Unix rants getting less and less comprehensible?
I have 3 MS machines and 1 apple mac oh and ubuntu on a few VMs. And of all of them I prefer the Mac. While Ubuntu is excellent it doesn't "just work" like a mac or windows (leave it.....) machine. Once Linux is as easy to use as the others only then will it be a true threat. The Mac has this sorted which is why next time I need a new laptop I will still happily buy another Mac and duel it to Windows when needed. And if i ever need some linux app (GIMP is the only one so far) I can just build it my self, or find the OSX port like with GIMP.
As for the topic? Updates: Ubuntu wants you to update just as much as windows and more than OSX. Though how much of this was security and how much was "new and improved" I couldn't tell you.
But then I have a degree in computing and work programming every day...so obviously I know nothing.
ps. When Are we getting a penguin with horns?
Wow, another pointless and unprompted anti-Apple rant.
I do like the way The Reg works with stories on patches and updates though. Here are two typical Reg stories:
Story one:
Microsoft/Apple Releases Massive Patch Bundle:
Microsoft/Apple today released a huge patch update fixing hundreds of shocking vulnerabilities, emphasising just how ropey their software was originally...
Story two:
Microsoft/Apple Fails To Patch Old Bug
Microsoft/Apple have still not released a patch for known vulnerabilities, emphasising just how little they care about security...
They never seem to be able to win!
I should hand my Computer Sci degree back and stop pretending to be a Software Developer, I do code in Java rather then .Net so i must not be a proper Developer either.
Shame they are overly expensive, and no netbook but, my Mac just runs and i can use it. Go figure.
MS biggest problem, is one of there own making, backwards compatiability, if they werent backwards compaitable then I think they would write decent enough stuff, but then they would just be another software house, oh and they would have to learn to read and understand open standards ;)
Blimey. 'Daily Mail reader, Mr Angry from Tonbridge Wells, moves to the USA'.
Frothing, sputum-flecked bile. Hey AC! - it's only a commercial dear!
I don't use Windows unless absolutely necessary (>0.1%) but when I do to me it's just another tool...
... I just prefer using Snap-On instead of WalMart.
Hee hee. This should be fun:
"I am truly amazed that people buy these obsolete buggy iGarbage from apple."
Er, they aren't buggy. Next...
"But, I bought an HP iPaq for a couple of hundred dollars - it came with a phone, full featured GPS with voice directions, and oh yea a full Windows Mobile OS long before Crapple's iPhone ever existed."
Yes, but your phone has no style and it runs Windows OS. Next...
"And why would anyone pay over $3000 for a crippled, obsolete-out-of the box Apple Mac OS X computer?"
Not sure where you get $3000, crippled and obsolete from? Seems to me you're just picking random words that have no relevance or truth.
"And Apple Mac OS X is based on FreeBSD, an open-source Unix look-alike, available FREE for the PC back in 1992, with a artsy-fartsy GUI. Whoopy Doo.."
Well it obviously has nothing in common with anything from 1992. Your gripe seems to be that it looks nice. Odd gripe to have. Next...
"It is too expensive, too buggy, and the only software available is a bunch of dinky puzzles written by 14 year olds. ".."
Expensive yes, but your PC is worthless in 3 years whereas you can sell a Mac on ebay and get 60% of your money back. If you want a nice looking machine, with nice materials, you have to pay for it. Are you poor or something?
Obviously your 14 year old dinky puzzle comment is something you made up. Again.
"Apple has a long history of fraud, racism and corruption"
Like anyone cares.
"PS: If Apple was supposed to be "invulnerable" to viruses, why are there so many security fixes being passed around? Even with all of Apple's virus and spyware vulnerabilities...which i'Tard would target a virus against an con-puter "OS" used by 2% of people out there?"
Get your facts right - it isn't 2%.
Who says OS X is invulnerable to viruses? No OS on the planet is. It doesn't change the fact I can't get an OS X virus at the moment, however hard I try. I can go anywhere on the internet and be safe, without any antivirus at all.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...
What are we to make of this latest tantrum from our young, now purple in the face, Micro-lings.
Could it be the new zero-day that "bites versions 5.01, 6, and 8" of Internet Explorer? Or the recent headlines proclaiming that "Security pros groan as zero-day hits Microsoft's SQL Server"? Or may be its the WordPad zero-day that's been talk of the town.
The road you have chosen with Windows is a rocky one full of challenges and frustrations which us aloof and happily smug Macintosh followers know nothing of.
This is bound to lead to anger, spite and jealousy as we impress adoring females by creating exotic playlists in iTunes and dramatic cinematography with iMovie. All this whilst our frustrated Micro-lings struggle with their anti-virus profiles and network/security settings. Oh the joy of it all.
""Many of the flaws could possibly be exploited to run unauthorized software on a victim's PC" - what happened to the safe out of the box quote these idiots keep going on about?"
If you don't connect it to the Internet, nobody can connect to your computer unauthorised. If you do connect it to the Internet, it automatically updates the security, so nobody can connect to your computer unauthorised. Sounds pretty "safe out of the box" to me.
Honestly children, what's going wrong, it's Christmas!
I have a 24" iMac, a quad core Linux box and a quad core Windows box on and under my desk. And a couple of Solaris machines kicking about too for good measure. And a BSD mailserver.
They all have their uses, pros and cons - I love them all, with all the fluffyness my dark little heart can muster up.
How about a group hug people? No Webster, not with the knife in your hand....aaargh!
Steven R
I use Macs because they do the job, with minimal fuss. If what you have does the job then fine, crack on, Im not going to suggest what you should or shouldnt be using.
But unlike another operating system, I diddnt have to fuck around with it for hours after the update, because X would no longer work with Y & so on, it just worked.
Is it my imagination, or are the mentally backward anti-Apple children now substantially outnumbering the mentally backward anti-Microsoft children around here? Naturally I refer wholly to comments like the first two Anonymous Cowards - comments like Mick F's are quite reasonable given that this sort of news story does seem to attract idiotic posts.
1.5 years ago my laptop, which I used for everything, was a Thinkpad running Slackware, and I loved that thing.
My wife needed a new machine and went shopping around, she ran screaming from a shop after seeing the abortion that is Vista.
After a bit more looking she decided she wanted a MacBook. She bought it and immediately found it to be far more functional and useful than anything running XP for equivalent prices. Six months later she bought a MBP and donated the MacBook to me. 2 months after that I bought an iMac, I was shocked at myself but I think OS X is a very useful system. I still keep my beloved Slacktop around but the hassle-free experience we have had with our iMac, MacBook and MBP in addition to the good customer service from Apple stores has convinced us to decide that from now on when a Windows computer dies in our SME it will be replaced with something from Apple.
We have no use for any of the overpriced and bug-riddled software from MS.
"Oh my god...I am flabergasted by the sheer number of computer illiterates still out there"
You're one of them, and a particularly stupid one to boot !
I'm fascinated by so many morons shouting "if Apple is so secure why are there security updates?"
Is there a single OS that doesn't do security updates? Even OpenBSD releases patches.
Extremely frunk would also do it!
Mick F: if I live in a safe neighbourhood that means it is extremely unlikely that someone will commit a crime, not that it is physically impossible. I suspect that's the sense in which people claim Macs are safe. Therefore, security updates don't prove that they are unsafe, merely that Apple are acting to keep them safe. There are a whole bunch of idiots that say things like "because it's based on UNIX, you can't hack it" but they're not just saying that Macs are safe (which is probably still true, because it's a statistical argument and the outcome probably hinges combination of technical implementation and, vitally, market share) but that it will always be safe no matter what because it has a buzzword attached. And you're right - those people are fools.
"Your HP pavillion will be fsck'd in about 4-6 months time" - ZD7065EA bought in November 2002 and still running as sweet as a nut. Plus this is the machine that has been hammered the most in terms of running CPU at high loads, lots of disk swaps and high temps for extended periods, lots of things installed then removed... my first gaming laptop. Still working extremely well, the only things ever needed fixing was a RAM upgrade, and I dropped it on its power connector and needed that resoldering - apart from that it is as the day I first got it. Unfortunately, I then got a couple of games needing DX10 and the nVidia 5600 couldn't handle that so I got a new laptop, but this one still gets fired up for some games that I've heavily modded over the years and still play...
So I would have to dispute your comment, Sir!
Usual flame war is going on I see? Horses for courses, and I guess it depends on what you want to spend your money on. Personally, I need either a stupidly overpriced but well specced ultraportable for work, or a gaming rig, so Apple doesn't meet my needs...
All this talk about Mac being "secure" makes me wonder if I have really been doing something wrong all these years. I'd *almost* consider switching, if it weren't so bloody expensive. Well, that, and the fact that with few exceptions, almost everything I want to do on the computer is gaming, and gaming on a Mac (last I checked) was still pretty painful (as in, not as big a game selection). That notwithstanding, maybe I'll look into one, anyway...
Thinkpad X301 is pretty awesome for the "stupidly overpriced but well-specced ultraportable" category, have a look at one- they tick all of those boxes, are nice to use- plus they look sleek, not blingy.
Personally, happy with my Macbook pro and eee901, though, as my needs are equally screwy :)
Umm, I think I'm supposed to flame someone now, right? Erm.. YOU ARE ALL WRONG AND SUCK. Or something. Have another day.
"because they don't want a "computer", they want a "status symbol". "
Or because they need to develop software for it.
Since the advent of Intel Macs, my employer has experienced a significant increase in requests from Mac users, particularly in Europe (and no, I don't work in design/media) - the practical upshots of all this are: 1) I get a nice new toy on my desk (the downside is I have to develop Java apps on it, but hey-ho), 2) European, Mac-using punters buy said apps, 3) my employers make more money and, with any luck, I'll get a bonus out of it.
This fruity machine sits well with a couple of Linux boxen, a Windows box and a server running Solaris. I used to own one of the last generation of PPC-based iBooks but, sadly, had to get rid of it after I was made redundant - at the time it was about as portable as laptops got, and even now I kind of miss it.
So, I'm not really that fussed which OS I use, although I prefer Linux for day-to-day use - supporting MacOS helps to pay my salary, and I ain't gonna argue with that.
Tux, 'cos that's where my loyalties have lain since around 1991
<quote>
Unfortunately, I then got a couple of games needing DX10
</quote>
Sounds like you know about teccy stuff and that means you can cosset your machine - that might take it up to about 12 months before it's unusable!
For average users their Windows machine is spyware infected very quickly - heck - most users don't even run defrag (Obviously, defrag isn't needed on nix's due to a proper file systems).
For average users their Mac's are running perfectly after years of use.
This is from my experience of working in IT for years and seeing the results of a large number of friends and families computer experiences.
@AC 16th Dec 18:56
Thinkpad X301 is a nice machine, and I generally like Thinkpads as I started my career on them - remember when every IT person had one? Every airport and train station and taxi rank was a sea of matte black machines and every trendy wine bar or smoky Irish themed pub was carpeted by a layer of Targus bags containing various 800s, T20s, T40s and the occasional fancy exec small model... I ended up going for a Sony Vaio in the end as the small machine had a discrete GPU so I could game at lower rez whilst stuck in a hotel 4 nights a week.
@Kevin Bailey 16th Dec 21:36
I would say that I am a competent user, though I find myself more interested in opening the thing up to have a look at the inside than playing with the OS. In use, I prefer to leave the OS alone most of the time - true, when I get a machine I do clean out all the OEM bloat and other crud in there, but never have I gratuitously reinstalled* windows because it was running a bit slowly... defrag, chkdsk, event viewer sorts that out. It annoys me that people reinstall (or get me to do it) as I find it more troublesome to go through the whole backup and rebuild process than clean it up and keep it clean through best practice!
I agree with you that Apple has provided a more locked down OS so it is harder for the average user to break things on it, but then again, the price is a Chinese government level of control of what can and can't happen... Leads to performance gains and the population are happy because you tell them they are happy...
Maybe in a parallel universe somewhere a web site called Le Ger has lots of people bemoaning Elppa's XSO monopoly in personal computing and the thousands of viruses out there for it and how its single OS on a single hardware platform made it so easy for virus writers to tailor an attack specifically for it, as opposed to Tfosorcim's Swodniw OS's plucky underdog style of unrestricted hardware and a small market share OS being popular with small boring corporations against all the multinational design and media houses that dominate the world!
*I have only ever had to reinstall one OS to fix a problem, and that was Ubuntu! Stupid updater hung and borked the laptop... now fixed.
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