Why do you use a Mac? The answer’s in the question, sorta
The latest Freedom2Surf newsletter pings into the inbox.
The top line:
Apple Mac users: Let us know how we can improve our Mac support.
There’s a linked survey, which includes the question “Why do you use a Mac?”
Back at the newsletter, what else is there to feast on? Inter alia..
Great Security Deals: Great security doesn’t have to cost the earth. Check out our competitive Security promotions!
Check your virus knowledge! You can never know enough about internet-born viruses. Make sure you remain safe with our mini guide and top tips.
Stay safe when banking online: Read our advice and protect yourself against online attacks.
FREE DeskDefender Scan! If you haven’t already subscribed to one of our Security Suite packages, Download IntY’s FREE DeskDefender scan!
Yeah, so anyway, remind me - why is it I use a Mac?
- These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
- Could you explain the question first, Clippy? (1 October 2004; score: 49.39%)
- What I've written lately: podcasting, the annual quiz, 2007 reviewed (sorta) and Google vs Wikipedia (21 December 2007; score: 43.92%)
- So many questions about Garageband, so few answers (22 May 2005; score: 28.81%)
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January 31st, 2007 at 12:13 am
Genius.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:17 am
Yes - but we both know that these people are mostly peddling snake oil, and that it perfectly possible to run windows safely without that kind of crap. I’ve never had a windows machine lock up the way you described your mac doing earlier, either.
January 31st, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Never seen a Windows machine lock up? Oh… I can solve that one for you. Turn it on and plug it into the Internet. OK OK, so it may be possible to run Windows safely without all that “crap”, but what lengths do you have to go to do it? And to what cost? Sure you can do it free - our PC in the office (note, singluar PC) runs AVG anti-virus, and ZoneLabs free firewall and all it seems to do is update and tell me of intrusions, viruses and my applications attempting to access the Internet…! But why oh why when our Macs just don’t do any of this? And our office Quicksilver G4 has been in operation for 5 years now, without hiccup. So…?
February 1st, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Of course I have had Windows machines lock up; just never in the really comprehensive way that Charles’s Mac did earlier this month. The worst I have ever wedged one up was actually by installing two anti-virus programs at once, which I did by accident. Wouldn’t boot at all, and had to be restored from scratch.
As for the lengths I go to — I use a hardware firewall on the router, and a software firewall (Kerio) that watches outgoing as well as incoming connections. From time to time I run an online virus scan, a rootkit scan and Ad-Aware just to check that I am still clean. Otherwise, it’s all common sense. I don’t run IE or Outlook; I don’t open unsolicited attachments, and Word documents get opened in OpenOffice; I am careful about phishing scams. I don’t visit porn sites.
On a mac, I do much the same without the periodic virus and spyware scans: I run the firewall and observe the same common sense precautions against nasties.
Most of the Zone labs warning messages are of course just ways to make people feel they are getting something valuable and important out of the program, by convincing the that the internet is full of nasties. Back when I had a linux box in the cellar, I used to log all the attempts to crack that - and there were a great many. That the mac doesn’t complain about these is just better marketing than Zone labs, not better security.
February 1st, 2007 at 6:38 pm
I was going to say, Charles: You’re just perverse.
Then acb weighed in with not visiting porn sites. I mean, really. How perverse can you get?
wg
February 5th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
While my Mac has been in the shop this week (one of the disadvantages of being one of the first with an intel MacBook Pro), I’ve had to go back to using a Windows PC. Despite the fact that I borrowed a state-of-the-art Dell laptop which has only been in the office for 3 days, I think I spent four hours trying to get the *** to log into the WiFi network. Plugging in the ethernet cable just kept bringing up a modem dial tone box. After I gave up using the trying to connect to the internet, and treated it like a typewriter, things improved some what, but I’d forgotten just how easy Macs are to connect to networks. This PC laptop had four different programs, each of which kept claiming that they owned my computer’s internet connection and I should work through them. It was a very frustrating experience.
February 18th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
> This PC laptop had four different programs, each of which
> kept claiming that they owned my computerís internet
> connection and I should work through them. It was a very
> frustrating experience.
This is a large part of the problem with Windows - uncontrolled 3rd party apps and utilities competing with the OS.
You did say it was Dell…
Tim
March 25th, 2007 at 8:20 am
My computer on Windows XP did lock up once.And one time it kick me out of the system.