Writing in today's New York Times, John Markoff describes how a recently-discovered computer virus "can commandeer the operating systems of both residential and corporate computing systems via the Internet." Not once does he actually mention which operating system or systems are affected.
Most certainly it is only Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Not only should Markoff be clear about that, but he should be clear about which specific versions of Windows are at risk. XP? Vista? Windows 7? With which service packs?
"Both residential and corporate computing systems" is an odd thing to write, and it makes no sense. But to avoid assigning responsibility to Microsoft for continually making a horribly insecure operating system, version after version, regardless of releasing patches, is bad journalism. There are no viruses, currently, for the Macintosh operating system, OSX. This is not because the Mac has a small market share -- there were viruses for the older "classic" Mac OS (such as OS 7). It is because OSX is more secure. I doubt it is completely secure, but I am not a security expect. All I know is that there are thousands of viruses and the like for Windows, but none for the Mac.
Markoff doesn't even mention Microsoft or Windows in the article. Pathetic.
