rtravsky@CORRAL.UWyo.Edu (Richard W Travsky) (02/12/91)
An observation on an observation... David Gursky dg@titanium.mitre.org writes > Observation 2: Mac viruses are not easier to write than PC viruses for > [...various reasons deleted...] > that infect each platform. When I last checked (and this was awhile > ago), there were some 5 different Mac viruses, with no more than five > variations on a particular strain: total of about a dozen Mac viruses. > At the time, the number of PC viruses numbered 23 distinct strains and > over a 100 total viruses. Alot of has to do with the number of > vandals writing viruses for the Mac vs. DOS, but it also has to do the > relative ease with which viruses can be written for DOS vs. the Mac. There are possibly more practical reasons as to why there are more pc viruses than mac viruses: There are MORE pcs than macs, not just more "vandals writing", tho the two quantities are clearly related. I saw a blurb a while back in PC Week saying there were around 45 million pcs in the US (apparently not counting Europe and elsewhere). Unfortunately, there was not a corresponding figure for macs. Be that as it may, more pcs means more people working on them (for one reason or another - some to do work, some to write viruses). Something else of note that I've learned from this list is that most recent viruses have been written in (eastern) Europe. What is the ratio of pcs to macs in Europe? Predominance of the platform easily leads to more viruses. And if it's easier to do on a pc...well, it's a frightening scenario. Richard Travsky Bitnet: RTRAVSKY @ UWYO Division of Information Technology Internet: RTRAVSKY @ CORRAL.UWYO.EDU University of Wyoming (307) 766 - 3663 / 3668