Originally Posted by skofarrell
So you're disputing the assertation that as OS's or applications rise in popularity/general use, more viruses and expliots are uncovered?
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Nope. I'm saying that the article you cited is alarmist, one sided, agenda pushing crap. I specifically did not say that Firefox bulletproof, or that there aren't plenty of exploits for it. That said, IE's exploits tend to be more severe, and tend to be unpatched longer. IE also has the giant gaping security hole known as ActiveX, which is insecure by design.
Originally Posted by skofarrell
If you're an virus/exploit author are you going to target IE, opera, or firefox? windows, Mac, or linux
There's some truth that the larger the platform the bigger the target. It's not any where near the whole story though. You ask whether a virus writer should choose Mac or Windows for the target. It depends on the goal of the virus. Those who are attempting to gain control of machines to create zombies should target Windows. There's lots more machines, and it's much easier to do. On the other hand, some virus writers are just looking for glory and attention. Some of those guys target Macs, because there's lots more glory in writing the first OSX virus than in writing yet another windows virus.