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If you don't use Outlook, you become a firewall against the spread of this kind of virus. Many viruses spread through email by looking for your Outlook address book and spreading themselves to many or all entries in the book. This is partly because of its design, but partly because it is a very large target for the bad guys. #MACOS MALWARE YEARS RUNONLY TO FOR SOFTWARE#For example, Microsoft email client software has proven to be problematical in transmission of viruses. This suggests that you don't make your own system as much as possible like everyone else's, but employ variations. The ones that remain were either lucky or they had some small variation of makeup (perhaps genetic) that saved them. In a real monoculture forest, when a serious virus or insect pest hits, most but not all trees are destroyed. Let's suppose that you want to enjoy the advantages of living in a monoculture but want to avoid its problems as much as possible. #MACOS MALWARE YEARS RUNONLY TO FOR MANUAL#Some manual sets weighed more than the computer on which the software ran. #MACOS MALWARE YEARS RUNONLY TO FOR MANUALS#We used to laugh at the size of manuals for programs on old DOS systems. This has been increasingly true since about the time Windows 95 appeared. Apple has also been good about providing tools in which it is easier to build such software than to go it alone.Īctually, the Wintel world is getting closer to the Macintosh world in this regard. The reason this works is that people that work on Macintosh computers expect and require it, and don't buy other products. This means that if you are familiar with a few Macintosh applications and buy a new one you will probably be able to use 90% of its functionality without reading any manual. For example, most Macintosh applications "work alike". Part of it is the culture on the Macintosh that users won't put up with many of the really bad practices in the Wintel world. Part of it is just that I'm such a small target than no one bothers. You can be made the target of large marketing schemes over which you have little control, but with which you must deal every working day. Worse, if the really big companies in the monoculture decide to employ spyware of various kinds, all of you wind up in massive databases and your relationships can be recorded and tracked. If Intel makes an error in designing floating point arithmetic routines in their microcode, millions of people have buggy spreadsheets. If a program is badly designed, all of you need to live with it. If a virus runs on your neighbor's machine, it probably also runs on yours also. However, the advantages of your monoculture also breed the seeds of many of your problems. AOL originated as a Macintosh alternative. Macromedia was once a Macintosh only company. You might be surprised to learn that many of the things you think began on the "Wintel" platform actually originated on the Macintosh: MS Word and Excel, for example. You can even exchange programs with one another, knowing that if it runs on your system, it will probably run on the next person's as well. You can exchange documents with one another easily and seamlessly. Some especially arcane tools run only on your systems. You form a large market, so many software tools come to you first. ![]() There are some advantages of living in a monoculture, but perhaps fewer than you think. #MACOS MALWARE YEARS RUNONLY TO FOR CODE#Since the latest version of the Macintosh operating system is a variant of UNIX, I have access to a large set of software tools developed over many years and now developed in an open environment in which the source code can be examined and modified. My operating system, like my hardware, come from Apple, but my software comes from many sources. Folks like me appear, but only infrequently. I, on the other hand, work on a Macintosh, so I am like a lowly Beech. There are so many of you that you are like a forest with only one kind of tree, say a Majestic Chestnut. Most of you work on Intel based Personal Computers running Microsoft operating systems, network servers, and even Microsoft end user applications. Living in a Monoculture Living in a Monoculture Joseph Bergin ![]()
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