Comments on: Another Good Reason to Use a Mac.

By: TMLutas

TMLutas — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:51:14 +0000

warmi – Could you give a clue as to an OS that doesn’t suck? I’m conversant in 3, Windows, Mac, and Linux. I’m currently studying for enterprise certification in Windows 2008 (what used to be called an MCSE which I already possess for Windows 2000 & NT). I am well aware of all of their shortcomings and strengths. Given different criteria, I can rig a test so that any one, none, or all of the operating systems qualify as full of suck.

What are your criteria?

By: Shannon Love

Shannon Love — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:32:28 +0000

Warmi,

Yeah, Windows PCs are plagued with viruses and stuff but the basic problem with Macs for me is that their OS sucks…

So, you view viruses and “stuff” as system features? ;-)

By: warmi

warmi — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:44:08 +0000

Yeah, Windows PCs are plagued with viruses and stuff but the basic problem with Macs for me is that their OS sucks … so I am stuck with Windows.

By: Nicholas

Nicholas — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:40:08 +0000

Strange that Linux wasn’t mention, it’s pretty secure too, and I’m very happy with it (Ubuntu 9.10).

By: J. Scott

J. Scott — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:27:35 +0000

I switched to a MacBook Pro last month—and wonder why in hell I waited so long!

By: tdaxp

tdaxp — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:56:28 +0000

Between spyware and Microsoft COFEE (a tool written by MS, that exploits known holes in Windows security), it’s dangerous to use a PC as your primary platform.

Macs call more loudly each year…

By: TMLutas

TMLutas — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:55:23 +0000

Virii and other malware aimed at the general population need to execute something and need to have certain files in predictable places for them to do anything. To protect yourself, pick a minority platform. Even if someone were to release a virus for AS400, it’s likely to propagate to a Windows, Mac, or Linux system before it hits you and thus won’t ever even get a chance to hurt you.

This logic does not work as well for cross platform software. If you release a Microsoft Office virus and run that on your Microsoft Office equipped Mac, you can still get infected. If there’s an Apache virus out there, your Mac and Linux computers will be vulnerable while most of your Windows boxes won’t be.

It’s a challenge to use software popular enough that you can get technical help for it but obscure enough that malware makers won’t target it that much.

In the end, vigilance is all you really have.

…typed on a Mac.

By: Jose Angel de Monterrey

Jose Angel de Monterrey — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:52:27 +0000

I have a macbook, so I don’t really have to worry about viruses and worms, I actually never use an antivirus in my macbook, it’s so safe you don’t need it, of course you also need to have good browsing skills, and you shouldn’t visit dangerous sites either, but I also have a pc and I´d just suggest people not to use microsoft’s internet explorer, whatever version, 7 or 8 or whatever, they are all the same, they are an open window to all kinds of viruses and worms populating the web. Firefox has also become a target for these worms, I’d use Google Chrome or Opera, they are a lot safer to use. The problem with Windows is that you cannot unistall IE, it’s embebbed into the OS. I wish there was a way to do that.