Are Linux safer than Apple OSX?

[nooby]

I found this text.

http://news.techworld.com/security/3220 ... or-attack/

http://www.intego.com/news/hellrts-back ... l-macs.asp

Intego has discovered a new variant of a malware for Mac, called HellRTS, which, when installed on computers running Mac OS X, opens a backdoor that allows remote users to take control of infected Macs and perform actions on them. Intego identifies this backdoor as OSX/HellRTS.D, a variant of an early Mac OS X malware first spotted in 2004.

I guess the good news are that most such require that the users says Yes to some hing for it to be able to run. So these exploits need to hide as something else first.

Now if both OSX and Linux are based on Unix code doesn't that mean that also linux can be targeted by such exploits?

[KF6SNJ]

Now if both OSX and Linux are based on Unix code doesn't that mean that also linux can be targeted by such exploits?

I suppose that, at first glance, that might seem likely. However, I wouldn't be too easily convinced. As I understand it, Linux may be able to use Un*x based software, but Linux was actually a clone of Minix, which was a clone of Un*x. Mac OSX, as I have been told, actually makes extensive use of actual Un*x code, so it is closer to being a true Un*x system than Linux could ever be. However, let me clarify that this is based upon hearsay and as such, I am not entirely certain. I don't think its likely, but I won't immediately rule it out.

[Trobin]

I suspect not. Most of what I can find says that OSX is more related to BSD than it is to linux. I doubt that a clever programmer would have much difficulty in modifying it to run on linux.