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October 11th, 2008, 1:54 pm

Hi I have just been into my local town and saw an apple shop and went in I saw a mac os x lepord for £800 should I get one I have an old windows xp (crap things as well) and it WILL be replaced with something soon so should I switch over to using an apple can you give me some pointers I leaning to mac now cos I know they can not get viruses a nice plus..

October 11th, 2008, 3:58 pm

Waaaaiiiit a minute. Maybe a Windows virus won't run on a Mac but a Mac virus certainly will. While there are less chances that a Mac will get a virus, they are not completely immune to them. I know a woman who just bought a Mac under that same pretense. People who sell Macs should tell it the way it is.

October 12th, 2008, 8:11 am

Yes ok but what about the fact that they don't crash?

October 12th, 2008, 8:51 am

October 12th, 2008, 5:01 pm

That's not a fact either. They can crash too. You're listening way too much to salesmen.

http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac ... ac-crashes

[spork]

October 12th, 2008, 6:39 pm

My PowerBook crashes all the time. It has some sort of weird hardware issue related to whatever goes on when it comes out of sleep. Definitely not an inherent flaw in the OS but still noteworthy.

From a usability standpoint there actually isn't much of a difference in the interfaces between Windows and OS X. You'd probably have it down pretty well in under a week.

October 13th, 2008, 12:27 pm

As both a Mac and PC user I feel dutifully obligated to weight in.

#1.) Security

- Windows XP/Vista: Windows is insecure without 3rd party programs like anti-virus, anti-malware software and a good dosing of common sense.

- Mac OS X: Mac OS X is much more secure out of the box. While it is true that Mac OS X is still vulnerable to viruses and malware, currently nothing widespread exists. Furthermore, with its basic architecture and permissions, a person with applicable common sense can avoid any viruses and malware within Six Sigma accuracy (99.9997%). However, I do recommend Peer Guardian & ClamXav (both are free).

#2.) Stability

- Windows XP/Vista: Can be stable provided that you are using quality hardware with stable drivers. 75% of all Microsoft Windows problems are caused by 3rd party software including buggy drivers, buggy software, software incompatibilities and malware/viruses. However, Microsoft Windows isn't very complete out of the box - meaning you need to install at least 9 to 15 pieces of 3rd party software to make it fully functional for the average user (not including drivers). This provides more points for failure and instability.

- Mac OS X: Is extremely stable - but isn't perfect. With Mac OS X, 80% of all problems are caused by bad hardware and overheating. What makes Mac OS X more suitable for the average user is that Mac OS X comes standard with software that manages music, video, photos and even CD/DVD burning (when you purchase a new Mac). Even advanced users only need 4 to 6 pieces of 3rd party software. A lot less points of potential failure. Another more notable benefit is that Mac OS X only is supported to work on Apple computers. Meaning no drivers, or messy installs or even vendor installed crap ware (HP, Lenovo & Dell: I am looking at you!). The software "just works" with the hardware. Certain 3rd party products do require drivers, but again it is 3rd party and not a problem with Mac OS X.

#3.) Speed

-Windows XP: Can be extremely fast on requisite hardware and a speedy machine can be had for $400 USD.

-Windows Vista: Can be quite fast on high-end hardware and a fast machine can be had for $1100 USD.

-Mac OS X: Works well on a wide range of hardware and a faster computer is really only needed depending on the application. A 4yr old PowerBook will work GREAT for a general user that just surfs the web and sends E-mail and can be had on the cheap used. Also, a wise choice on a brand new Apple computer will last a general user for at least 3 to 4 years. While a PC will last only 2 years.

I am a power user myself and I currently have a 17" MacBook Pro which is 2 years old and I have a 15.4" Lenovo T61P with Windows XP Pro Sp3 which is 10 months old. I plan on replacing my MacBook Pro tomorrow (when the new Laptops are released) with another top of the line MacBook Pro. I plan to replace my T61P, by January. So a Mac for me, lasts twice as long as a PC while only costing ~25% more. My T61P cost me $2,500 while my MacBook Pro cost me $3,150.

Unless you are using very specific applications - Go with a mac.

However if you do go with Windows: Get Clamwin AV, Spybot Search & Destroy and Firefox (All Free). And never, ever, EVER use the pre-load. Always reload the OS from scratch. If you don't feel comfortable doing so or don't have a clue as to what I mean - Please, Get a Mac.

October 13th, 2008, 4:03 pm

All that may be true but Mac sales people are slanting the information and people like the original poster and a woman I know both recently bought a Mac under false pretenses.

October 14th, 2008, 8:54 am

Don2007 wrote:

All that may be true but Mac sales people are slanting the information and people like the original poster and a woman I know both recently bought a Mac under false pretenses.

Don, That is pretty much all sales people. Actually, that's all marketing in general. Now, you shouldn't feel bitter. There are really only 40 malicious applications and "viruses" capable of harming a Mac. All of them are basically dead and none ever infected very many PC's. The most, if I am not mistaken was 30 in total. By contrast, Microsoft Windows has ~80,000 viruses and about 250,000 malware applications. Most of these viruses and malware applications infect hundreds of thousands to millions of PC's. On windows, using IE you can literally infect your computer with over 70 viruses and malware apps by visiting the wrong site for a second. It takes 17 minutes of idle on-line activity for an unsecured Windows XP machine to be compromised. You can bring home a brand new Mac, slap it on the internet without a firewall for a year and still not be infected or compromised.

People say, "oh, thats because its not popular enough." That's not entirely true. Thing is, it doesn't take brains to write a windows virus - even a very deadly one. A person with two weeks worth of VB programming classes can write a nasty virus. On the contrary, you need to be an expert at objective C programming, OpenBSD security, Unix system design and Cocoa to write a virus for the Mac, and then out of 100 different tries you might get one that can infect 10 people before it gets patched out of existence. People with half a brain don't write computer viruses. Even when a computer virus does come around, if you use common sense, you won't get infected. I have been using computers since 1987 - not once have I ever had a virus or a piece of malware on any of my systems and I don't have 10,000 AV, spyware apps and firewalls. I have a router with a SPI & NAT firewall and I use WPA2-PSK AES encryption with a strong network password. On my Mac I have PeerGuardian, and I run a weekly sweep with ClamXav. I use the Firefox web browser with Adblock plus and noscript extensions.

I for one say "congratulations" on purchasing a Mac OS X based computer. Barring any high-end feature length Full HD video editing or 3D computer modeling, your computer should last you quite some time.

Actually, one very good benefit is that over time, the OS doesn't start to drag like Windows XP or Vista. It will operate the same 2 years from now as it did the day you bought it. Of course, granted that you don't install 101,254,649 applications and extras.

October 14th, 2008, 2:34 pm

Yes, you are correct. Most sales people do that. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that he shouldn't have bought a Mac.

The bottom line is, he was fooled once and he could be fooled again. There was nothing lost this time but next time, he might not be so lucky.