14 DAY TRIAL // Mac users are renowned for being smug and overly full of themselves over the security and stability of their OS. By the security experts and Windows users at large, this is perceived as folly and self-delusion, respectively. Are Mac users truly that loony? As usual, the answer is not a simple yes or no matter.
Overall experience is the key factor. Macs have a huge retention factor and almost everybody that starts working on one will never look at anything that isn't at least the equal of the Mac. Many of them are long time Mac users, with many years under their belt. While Windows users have landmark releases of the operating system, with very few upgrades in between, the Mac OS has only once gone through a transformation that has been deeply differentiated throughout it's history. In other words, while old time Windows users differentiate between Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium, Windows 2000, Windows NT and Windows XP, and the experience they had with each operating system, Mac users see things in terms of Classic (pre OS X) and OS X. Sure, there have been many releases of OS X, the original OS X, OS X.1, OS X.2 (Jaguar), OS X.3 (Panther), and OS X.4 (Tiger), but it's all OS X, and throughout all its releases it has been stable, reliable and secure. When you've been using an OS for over five years, out of the box, without any special tuning of any sort, without any problems you learn to trust it.
Security is another important issue, and the homeland of many myths. Mac users feel secure, and they, more often than not laugh at antivirus programs, worm warnings and exploit announcements. Security specialists think them ignorant and insane, but again, it all comes down to the overall experience. After using Macs connected to the Internet for over a decade, and never having to do with one single piece of virus malware or adware, you learn to trust the OS. OS X has better security, and, out of the box, is impenetrable when compared to a out of the box Windows PC with no special configuration. Why should we not feel secure? If you buy a top of the line car, with airbags and all the security measures built in, you are going to feel secure driving it. That is not to say that it is impenetrable and than no accident could ever happen to it, and that you will never be hurt. But the likelihood of that happening is so minute when compared to the circle and stick default security that Windows has, that no one feels the need to take any other extra security measures. Many invoke the security through obscurity myth to explain the lack of attacks and everyday security breaches in OS X. They need to wake up and stop drinking the Kool-Aid. The Mac, and OS X are by no means obscure, and since everyone is touting the superior security OS X has and the lack of viruses in the wild, one would find it hard to believe that nobody, on the entire planet want to go down in history for breaking the OS X security myth and writing the first OS X virus.
Should Mac users take further steps to protect themselves? At the moment, the average Mac user, and by that I mean the Average Joe who has a computer at home and uses it to surf the web, check the mail and the such, does not need any further protection. Sure, big time companies that have Macs should protect them, because they are likely to have information that is valuable. But the average user has no need for added security. You cannot get the computer so infested by adware and malware that it becomes inoperable simply by browsing the web or opening an image in a chat program. Should that ever become the case, I am sure that Apple will take the necessary steps to prevent this from happening and make OS X secure out of the box again. And I can bet they won't be asking for $50 a month to keep your computer safe.
Remember, Apple might sell hardware, but in reality, they sell the user experience, if the user experience were ever to go bad, they would loose customers fast. This they know. Not like other companies that march on the idea that the user will buy the OS because they don't really have any other choice.