No matter how appealing the MAX Unix OS is to people, it requires the replacement of entire infrastructures and support mechanisms. The retraining of support people and the replacement of software infrastructures that cost in the millions of dollars. Corporate America will never take the plunge because of the dollars involved.

Let’s say my company wanted to replace the entire desktop community with Apples. 60% laptops and 40% desktops. Also about 50% of our environment would require some form of Windows still because of Software that will not run on a MAC.

$56,700,000.00 in laptops

$12,960,000.00 in Desktops

$3,361,500 Windows OS licensing

$32,400,000 for Re-licensing existing software that will run on a MAC that we already own on the PC

$105,421,500 - The Total cost to replace our Windows Based PC’s with MACs.

There is not one CEO in America or the World that could look at the numbers and see the potential for the return on investment. We did a deployment of Windows 2000 and replaced 60% of our hardware in the process for a paltry $32,000,000. As a result of that deployment we have an annual saving of $180,000,000 in operational and support cost. We have been reaping that reward for 5 years now and the savings have been increasing because we keep getting updates to our infrastructure and the tools that support that infrastructure streamlining our processes and increasing our uptime and availability. Going to a completely different operating system would reverse that trend.

MAC’s OS X is basically BSD Unix. Unix has as many if not more security vulnerabilities than Microsoft. And those vulnerabilities exist in dozens of flavors because of the dozens of versions of Unix and Linux.

Unix OS’s have few effective centralized management systems, patch management or auditing software available to manage the product in the enterprise to the level and effectiveness of the Windows OS’s There are limited and ineffective software distribution tools. The risk are increased and the potential for measurable losses dramatically increases.

If I can’t secure it, it is a unmanageable risk that is a threat to our internal security and intellectual property that is 100% unacceptable.

Microsoft is not dead, it is just such a huge lumbering giant that it does not appear to move.

Anyone that thinks MAC is a threat to Microsoft is delusional. The retail consumer has very little affect on the market. After all most consumers will buy one maybe 2 computers every few years. We buy almost 12,000 computers every year.

The Home user may not think that these cost that affect corporate America will hit them, Quite the opposite, In fact they will have to repurchase all of their software and start over. Or they will have to but more software so that they can run Windows on their Mac. Either way, they will pay dramatically more money to do what they can do for a fraction of the cost on a PC.

Then there is this other argument I recently read that states “The ultimate nightmare for Microsoft would be if Vista doesn’t succeed at stopping viruses and SpyWare.” That is hands down one of the dumbest statements I have read yet. Microsoft has never made a claim that they will STOP SpyWare or MalWare. They have stated that they intend to greatly reduce SpyWare and MalWare.

How do I know? Well we spend roughly $20 million a year with Microsoft. My job, specifically, is to deal with anti-virus, MalWare, Exploits and vulnerabilities, I am currently working in Security and Risk management at a fortune 100 Company with over 27,000 Windows installs and ZERO Mac installs. I am responsible for all of them.

MAC People have this delusion that MACS are safe and no viruses or security risk exist for MACs. I can safely tell you , having Completed my SANS training last week to get my GIAC GSEC Certification that MAC’s are horribly weak and vulnerable. The reason the illusion of security exists is because no one wants to take the time to try to exploit the smallest market share on the planet. The people that are creating this software now are criminals. They are Organized Crime like the Russian Mob, the Chinese Government, the Venezuelan mob and the Brazilian mob, the NSA and the FBI. There is no profit in exploiting MAC’s right now.

Microsoft is the largest target, therefore it is the most likely to be exploited. If you have 100,000 people working on a crack on Windows and 2 people working on a crack in MAC who do you think will succeed? For example, China actually has been caught holding the Source Code to Microsoft Windows. The Chinese government has workshops of people continuously hammering at windows looking for zero day exploits for the sole purpose of infiltrating corporate America in order to steal intellectual property.

If MAC can actually achieve a respectable market share again then they had better watch out. I can guarantee you all of the MAC prophets will be eating their words and scrambling to find patches just like we were two months before Microsoft announced the beginning of Black Tuesday’s, we will be sitting laughing and saying “we told you so.”

As for Vista, it is not a cure, but it is a step in the right direction. It is more secure, like the MAC commercial likes to joke. By involving the user in the decision to allow or disallow. Wake up people, this is the world we live in now. The internet is full of skanky neighborhoods with unsafe streets and dark alleyways where criminals lurk.

Apple may be preying on the windows users that are fed up, but the fact is that they have shot themselves in the foot repeatedly and keep blaming the gun. Users disable Virus Scan because it slows down the computer when they are on the internet. There are exploits out there that will exploit any web browser on any OS. The majority of times, when a PC doesn’t work right, it is the users fault. The problem is people treat a computer like an appliance, like a Microwave. They just want it to work and never give a thought to what a seriously complicated machine it really is.

Keep buying those Macs people, I can’t wait to make the extra money cleaning up your MAC viruses in a few years. Just remember I charge $150.00 for the 1st hour and $75 for each additional hour and I charge double for evenings and weekends.

The real problem with Operating systems and Security is Layer 8 of the OSI Model; the End User is Layer 8 and that is and always will be the biggest hole in all security.

For the record; I know there are only 7 Layers to the OSI model.