Macs vs PC, an aged old competition full of misconceptions and misunderstandings. In this article, I wanted to talk more about Viruses and Malware that “seems” to affect the PC more.
Are Not Naturally Occurring
First and foremost, many people think that computer viruses are naturally occurring, like biological viruses. This is a common misconception. Computer viruses and malware are all created by people. They don’t create themselves.
So, with that misconception that computer viruses are naturally occurring, people think that the Mac is a much “better” system than PCs because they don’t have as many viruses or malware issues.
Are Platform Specific
A computer virus or malware is a computer program. Like all programs, they need to be written and coded for certain platforms. A program written for Microsoft Windows cannot be run on a Mac OS and vice versa.
The same goes for your smartphones. A Virus written for Android won’t affect you on iOS and vice versa.
With that understanding, viruses and malware are created by people written for the platform they want to target.
The Bigger Target for Viruses and Malware
So, put yourself in the mind of a hacker or “evil” programmer that’s coding the virus or malware. If you can only code for one platform, who would you target?
In the Desktop/Laptop arena, the largest target is Microsoft Windows PCs. They cover about 80% of the market share so this is the very reason why the PC has more virus and malware issues.
Why would you spend time writing a program to target a smaller population?
Is the Mac actually Better?
Hopefully, now you understand why the PC seems to have more virus and malware issues. Does that mean that the Mac is actually a better system? No. It’s just a smaller target that doesn’t get much attention from virus and malware creators.
But, now you may be thinking that it is better to get a Mac because they are a smaller target. Well, think about this then. Why is the world basically run on Windows PCs? The #1 top reason is that they are much more compatible with working with others. It’s much easier to share data and work with others. Well, anyway, there are many more reasons and that could be an article of itself that I may write up one day.