Obvious Diversion

Ah, the quality journalism that is USA Today.

Andrew Kantor writes a column for USA Today under the name “CyberSpeak” as if he’s the lone guy who still believes in the promise of The Lawnmower Man. In this particular column, he puts forth the idea that Boot Camp, beta software released by Apple to allow Intel macs to run windows, will start a mass exodus from the Mac to Windows.

There are so many problems with this article that it’s tough to know where to start.

Making Macs Seem Too Expensive With $300 Windows

First, he inflates the cost of every Mac he quotes with the full retail price of a copy of Windows XP Professional in order to make the Mac seem as if it’s not cost competitive. The truth is the Mac often beats the competition on both features and price.

The added cost of Windows XP Pro? $300. So, he says an iMac will cost you $1600 when it’s really $1300. Most of us have a copy of windows laying around somewhere from some past machine and we’ll more than likely use that. It’s also worth mentioning that a full copy of Mac OS X is $129 while a Family Pack of Mac OS X good for five computers is only $200. So, Mac OS costs $129 and Windows XP Pro costs $300. Who’s not cost competitive?

For $1299 you get a computer that Walt Mossberg from the Washington Post describes as

We’ve been testing this new iMac, and our verdict is that it’s the gold standard of desktop PCs. To put it simply: No desktop offered by Dell or Hewlett-Packard or Sony or Gateway can match the new iMac G5’s combination of power, elegance, simplicity, ease of use, built-in software, stability and security. From setup to performing the most intense tasks, it’s a pleasure to use. And, contrary to common misconceptions, this Mac is competitively priced, when compared with comparably equipped midrange Windows PCs; and it handles all common Windows files, as well as the Internet and email, with aplomb.

Not bad, eh?

Viruses and the Mac

Here’s a choice quote on viruses:

Oh, and the whole “no viruses on the Mac” business? Besides the fact that it’s no longer true, you can get this neat stuff called anti-virus software.

So, earlier this year there were a couple scares of possible malware for the Mac. Both turned out to be bogus once investigated with infection rates of zero. It took about a week for people to investigate the claimed infections and during that week reporters such as Andrew decided that rumor might as well be fact.

The viruses that are out there for the mac right now are largely proof-of-concept meaning someone wanted to prove a point that it is possible for a virus to exist on a Mac. It is. It’s possible for a virus/trogan/worm to infect your cell phone, Linux, the Mac, Unix, PDAs and anything else that can run code. It’s just a million times more likely for Windows to be the victim of such attacks.

Why? Primarily because it’s the most targeted platform by writers of such malware. Because it’s the majority platform of home users, it’s targeted as a primary victim. But there’s another reason: Windows gives no end to the opportunities to get infected. It’s not even close to being secure by it’s very nature and this is not a fact about to change any time soon.

Year after year, the announcement of yet another security problem is endless cycle for Windows. It gets patched and then a few days later there is another. Windows isn’t secure and that’s just a reality that will have to be accepted for quite some time.

I love the fact that Andrew refers to anti-virus software as “neat stuff”. Yeah, spending an additional $40 a year on anti-virus software is pretty “neat”. I wonder if he adds that cost to the price of every PC he reviews.

This is not to say that the Mac doesn’t have security problems. It just has dramatically less. Based on the BSD operating system, Mac OS X comes from what many see as one of the most solid and secure OS architectures used today.

My friend Ansel always emails me when Apple releases a security update because he loves how simply they name them. In March, the first one came out. It’s name? Security Update 2006-001.

One Last Note

In it’s current form, Boot Camp isn’t targeted at mainstream users. It’s targeted at the geek crowd. Boot Camp is beta software and should be installed with caution if at all. The next version of Mac OS will have this capability included, but it could have a great deal more. With virtualization, Windows programs could run right along side Mac programs in the Mac OS. This removes a big barrier for a lot of people who want to switch, but don’t want to give up a favorite Windows program.