Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows

Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows are the most common computer operating systems used in business today. The Apple Macintosh is commonly referred to as the Mac. There has been a heated debate on which between Windows or Mac is better applied in business application.  The debate is intensified by the thousands of millions dollars invested in advertisements by these two companies. The choice on which of the two applications is the best to be applied in any business depends primary on the task the computer performs. Both Windows and Mac have different and varying features that make them both suitable for any business application and have both been applied in the past many years.

The common belief in the business field is that Mac is easier and more secure to be used in business while Windows have what it takes to champion businesses with its greater base marketing installation that is easy for any kind of business to trade with (Towner 78). Statistics has it that most of the businesses today are moving from using other application to Macs. In the past, business didn’t relate Mac to business application. However, the modern business situations call for high operations numbers in both large and small business forcing the owners to rethink about Macs applications because of the security threats associated with such operations. These situations have made businesses to opt for Macs and turn away from PC’s so as to do away with the increasing computer blues. Safety is considered as one of the basic requirements in any business entity and now that Mac has proved to be more secure to use, more and more businesses are considering using it over the windows.

There has been a wide perception about how invincible Mac is to malware. Despite the speculations, Mac OS X is still widely regarded as being less vulnerable to malware and other security threats as moist of the modern computer hackers come up with codes that mainly target machines that are based on Windows. The F-secure security software installed in Mac computers has helped its users as their computers are more secure and has resulted to the number of attacks on Macs to greatly reduce. For example, a Google search result produces more than 120 varieties of Mac malware. The Norton Antivirus used by Mac has a list of only 20 viruses which affect Macs. This has led to more organizations to make use of Mac in their programs. The US Army has taken the step of increasing their security by initiating a program that makes use of Mac in its Arsenal (Lu 45).

 This is a clear indication of how Mac is more secure and can be reliable in very sensitive areas. Businesses have to secure its operation strategies and accounting information from its competitors as well as the public. The best way to ensure that this is done is by choosing on Mac instead of Windows. Mac is more secure from even internet attacks that are common on computers today. Businesses such as Raytheon and Boeing have settled for Mac application so as to improve their network security and eliminate any flaws that would find their way in their networks. The decision to employ Mac in most business has proved to be a key penultimate in achieving their goals. This trend has led to most of the business which had earlier depended on Windows to have to switch to Mac because of security reasons (Lu 87).

Macs computers rarely develop malware virus and problems in businesses because of various features; Mac OS X applications allow its users to operate their computers without necessarily running the administrator privileges. Before the introduction of Windows Vista, most of the customers using windows enjoyed the privileges of modifying and installing OS at any time. On contrary, Mac OS X, does not allow its users to run with such privileges. This implies that the users have to enter a password so as to install or come up with critical system software. With these restrictions, business will be better placed to reduce the damages resulting from email or Web malware. Compared to the Windows, Mac does not require the users to insert an Active binary code into their computers or their kernel environment through the Mac OS X Web (Schwartz 78).

Mac Os X applications have minimal spaghetti code. Generally, it is easier to secure a simple software as compared to a complex one. Macs’ UNIX has less than 200 points of entry to the kernel environment security area. Even if the Mac OS x system consists of many libraries, most of them lack enough privileges to cause any harm. The other additional feature that makes Mac more secure is its OS X mail which is made in such a way that it does noir run attachments automatically. This counters the biggest blunder Microsoft made of configuring its Express mail and Outlook systems such that they automatically execute the incoming HTML emails’ script code without any user action. This was one of the poorest decisions Microsoft ever made in terms of security matters. It can be costly in any business as it means that the entity’s mails can be accessed by ant one. This formed the biggest vectors through which viruses used to proliferate (Schwartz 134).

As Windows are facing such big security threats, Mac mail systems do not allow the running of attachment or HTML code that is automatic. The implication of this is that the common vector for viruses experienced in Windows does not exist in the Mac world. This realization should come as a relief to most business as they are sure of their mails being secure once they use Mac. Mac applications can also actively verify and manage its hardware as it doesn’t require to give up its security for it to be compatible with other millions of varying hardware configurations. The Leopard launch has enabled Mac to actively prunes its hardware configuration number it supports (Schwartz 102).

 A good demonstration of this application to businesses is the iPhone by Apple that is no stranger in shutting up its software/hardware products in order to guarantee its users a good experience. This means that Mac doesn’t need to offer compatibility interference that is insecure for old software and hardware systems.  By having this application, Mac’s threat exposures are greatly reduced. Windows often crash and are attacked by viruses frustrating most business men. With the Mac OS, the businesses don’t have to worry about malware. This means that such businesses will not be expected to run many software in the background while in operation so as to deal with such problems. Mac is not easily affected by viruses because of the OS X’s Unix application that makes the Mac impervious to viruses. Windows have a higher preponderance making it easily prone malware

Mac’s Frontier is being applied by more than 4 million residential customers and businesses to offer premium support and security. This is a highly trained technology used by Mac to keep business and homes computers anywhere is America running smoothly through the PC tune-ups proving expert connection to now devices while still maintaining privacy with its performances troubleshooting and settings. These services are designed in a way that they boost security and performance so as to improve the integrity and safety of the users’ online experience. Frontier makes use of F-Secure as its vision and services are aligned. The modern business men and women have realized that the Mac OS X and the Apple computers form the perfect platform in the management of businesses. This realization does not just apply to small businesses but to all kind of business. Even the world renowned elite businesses have fully or in some of their departments switched from using windows to Mac.  Some of the businesses that have followed the switching trend include Google, Home Depot, U.S White House and Oracle. This is a clear indication that Mac has proved to perform better in business operation than the Windows that’s why big business are choosing it over windows (Towner 145).

Together, F-Secure and Frontier provide support solutions and unprecedented simplicity making the innovation a reality to every user who checks mail, surfs the web, access contents using a variety of mobile devices, shares videos and photos and is expected to have invaluable digital content backs up. F-Secure security depth and suite experience has made it an obvious choice for most of the business. It offers a superior support than any Windows application on the support level with its services of ‘Peace of Mind’. Since its introduction, it has managed to maintain its main goal of providing customer services and unsurpassed security to its customers.

The above argument leaves no doubt that the better computers operating system between Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows to be used in any business is Mac because of it is more secure. However, this is stand is also relative as there are several version of windows and Mac and one might find some Windows’ versions that are more secure than other Mac versions. For example, windows XP is not secure for sensitive business operation. It even forced Microsoft to develop more secure versions like the XP SP2 for free. However, Windows 7 has been included with advanced security measures like the OS X. Despite such efforts to make Windows more secure, Windows still remain the ones most vulnerable to attacks. Some people argue that that Mac is not more secure but less risky.

The difference comes in because of the varying threat environment. This means that the small market share that Mac serves makes it less exposed to attacks. This makes Mac more secure because it’s being targeted by few attacks as compared to Windows. Its smaller user base makes Mac a lesser lucrative target. Also, there exists expertise and codebase on windows thus they continuously create more attacks on windows. Most attacks targeted browser than operating systems and now that Mac’s browser vectors are secure and are few, they are less likely to be attacked as much as it is the case with Windows. The attacks mostly go for the operation systems application levels making them run things they should not. This has in the last decade affected Windows at great extends (Towner 78).

This makes Apple Macintosh have more security advantages over Microsoft Windows thus making Mac the most preferable operating system by most businesses especially when the security of such entities is at stake. Taking a careless Windows user and another careless Mac user, The Windows user is most likely to run into many ways of getting malware attacks whereas the Mac user is most likely to avoid running into any malware. Even in a situation where a type of Window for example Windows 7 seems to be more secure compared to its Mac’s counterpart, let us say Mac OS  X, Mac will still stand out as being secure between the two. Windows on the other hand has several features that make them preferable to Mac depending on the area of application and the working environment such as its larger marketing installation which can easily champion business to prosperity because it is easily applicable in any kind of business. However, the priorities of businesses put the security of the business before other factors. Why should a business then risk its investment by using Windows yet there is a safer option to secure its business?