MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

I sent the author a "thank you" email...wow, what a great article!!

Blame oor Marketing on the part of Apple.
Does it really take much skill to make a product that only 2-3% of the market will buy? (There is always a niche that will buy something that is thrown out to them.)And 97-98% of the market totally ignores, hates or have no clue of their product.

Steve needs to get out of the marketing/ad dept. and put somebody in that knows how to sell value and utility - not image.

Good read. I wish that I could get a powerbook for work. That would be the greatest change, but since the healthcare industry is still running mainframe programs, it will be a loooong time.

Oh well, at least I enjoy my 2001 iBook (10.3) at home!

Great article.

I guess people just don't have the time to worry about these things thus they're being swept under the carpet. Most people are happy enough they have a pc. What happens inside their pc is out of their concerns, as long as they can surf, they're fine. What these people probably doesn't know are the alternatives and course of actions they can take.

just my 0.02 cents

I have a client that uses a Windows machine as their primary e-mail server. The Windows machine is behind a the firewall, runs Windows XP and is patched up to date, excluding XP service pack 2 which the e-mail software vendor (and everyone else) advised against.

Last weekend this server started crashing, shutting itself down, the typical virus symptoms. I picked up the server, drove it back to my lab, sure enough there were tons of viruses, spyware, etc.

This was surprisng to me. No one uses this machine to surf the web. I looked at IE and found someone had been using it to surf the web, so that's where most of the spyware probably came from.

I stopped trying to figure out how, and simply accepted . I wiped the server out, re-installed Windows XP, tested everything, brought it back to their office, and within 15 minutes, FIFTEEN MINUTES, it was infected again because I forgot to disable the messaging service and Remote Procedure Calls.

I de-virused it, and decided screw everyone, I was going to install Service Pack 2.

I did.

Service pack 2 rendered the server useless. I could no longer start it up again.

I wound up taking the damn thing back, grabbing another PC, installing Windows 2000 pro on it. Patching it to the hilt, and taking it back.

WHAT A FREAKING PAIN.

For the cost of what they paid me... they could have put QuickMail on a Mac Mini and been done with it. But Nooooooo... the COO is a "computer expert" and thinks that Windows is better for server activities. Whatever, I need the money.

that dood sounded pissed... and he doesn't even use a peecee.

lol.

The "experts" in charge make their living from fixing windows. They'd be stupid to recommend something that gives them less work. Money talks...And then there's the Stockholm syndrome. And then there's fixation on price at purchase instead of TCO. And then of course there's good old fashioned plain stupidity...

magic word: dough

"Am I being unfair? Maybe. Hell, I'm sure Windows has its gnarled and wary defenders, war-torn and battle-tested folk who still insist that, because there's more software available for the Windows OS, it's somehow superior -- though I challenge them to name one significant, common activity the Mac can't do as well as, if not better than, PCs," Morford writes. "For 97 percent of users in the world, Macs would be a more elegant and intuitive and appealing solution. Period."

this is a great article, and moford brings up lots of good points, but tech writers these days are asking the wrong questions. its not "though i challenge them to name one significant, common activity the mac can't do as well as, if not better than, PC's". the question we mac evangelists need to be asking our windoze friends is to name one significant, common activity the PC does as well as, if not better than, our Macs.

theloniusMac: I feel you pain. I get people calling me all the time complaining that their computers which were cleaned out of Spyware and Viruses are getting reinfected all the time. I mention where I can about the Mac Mini and it's lack of problems...but people seem to give all the same excuses...I shoot em all down, but people continue to refuse to jump ship! It drives me nuts, but at least it generated a paycheck. "Thank you for calling Internet Tech Support... your ignorance is my job security."

Just my 2 cents, after sitting on both side of the Corporate IT world, as a user or member of an organization supported by IT and as an IT member.

Several reasons you don't see Corporate IT screaming about problems in general with Microsoft and its products, may not be as obvious to those who haven't been in Corporate IT or supported by a typical IT organization in a larger company. I remember reading something along this line about a year or so ago, so it's not mine. However, I do agree with the observations.

In short:
1. Management "agrees" that Microsoft is the standard by which the organization will be measured.
2. Evaluations are by "the standard". If you use the same software and implement similar solutions as your peers (Fortune 500, Fortune 100, educational institutions - you define your peers), you're following "the standard." If you follow MS's recommendations and patches, you're doing the best you can do under the circumstances. It's the same as your peers are doing. It's the service agreement you've signed up to with your users. And *that* is the standard by which you'll be evaluated.
3. Keeping Microsoft as the standard ensures that more support staff are needed to maintain both software and hardware. More support staff = more management team members = more $$$$$ from the user organization for support.

Just my 2 cents...

Great article. Especially since my own copy of Word for Mac froze (again) this morning.

Windows is the second-greatest fraud ever perpetrated on humanity; religion is the the first. Stands to reason that people can't reason. It's always been the case.

The problem is: LACK OF COMPETITION in the Intel platform and platform-stickiness -- it's not easy [in their minds] to dump their software and move into another platform. But it's happening now because Windows is truly atrocious in a way that Macs aren't.

Good article.

The DSL worked great. For about four minutes.

Then, something happened. Something attacked. Something swarmed her computer the instant she tried to move around online and the computer slowed and bogged and cluttered and crashed, and multiple restarts and debuggings and what-the-hells only brought up only a flood of nightmarish pop-up windows and terrifying error messages and massive system slowdowns and all manner of inexplicable claims of infestation of this worm and that Trojan horse and did we want to buy McAfee AntiVirus protection for $39.95?

Four minutes. And she was already DOA.

My SO, she is not alone. This exact same scenario, with only slight variation, is happening throughout the nation, right now.

Gates and Co should be thrown in jail if you think about it.

"Why does Windows still suck and why isn't everyone on a Mac?"

because people who choose hell don't change their minds

Less Is More, you sound a little disgruntled, lay off the caffeine.

Why run Mac ads when we have so much fun promoting the iPod!?

I really wish Apple would stop drinking their own Kool Aide on the halo effect and share some advertising dollars from the iPod with the Mac, more specifically, the Mac OS. That is the key. Hardware is hardware as far as the general consumer knows, the software is the key. The OS is the most important key. We need Apple to display the OS on a national medium. The Super Bowl (Go Eagles!) would be great! But they will do more iPod crap.

Love the iPod..... but don't forget about the Mac and it's OS Apple.

Agreed. Spend money advertising the OS and iSoftware, not the hardware. If they latch on to wanting the OS, they'll figure out that they are going to have to buy the hardware.

Not disgruntled, Chomper, actually a very satisfied and smug Mac user who likes to call a spade a spade.

Morton gets it, you see. Check out some of his other articles.

Face it.

Windows is more secure....

for IT professionals.

Their jobs are a lot more secure with Windows...

They need virii, malware, and hacker attacks. Otherwise the unemployment rate would be double.

M$ employs a lot of people indirectly.

Rather than writing a decent OS, M$ is trying to employ more people and gov't to waste time and money to fight malware. This is keeping the world's economy afloat and unemployment levels down.


Just like many other people, it is never M$'s fault, it is everyone else's fault.

Its because those who make the decisions are usually the ones least qualified to make them. We've got someone at our work that oversees a major department who wants to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on MS Exchange because he thinks its the best because its the most popular. This coming from someone who doesn't even read his own email. His secretary prints his email out and hands it to him.

The answer doesn't make the PC users feel too good about themselves..

Ignorance and Games..


Most middle agers.. or even baby boomers, know dick all about computers.. and ask their little kids to help them out when it comes to what to buy...

bad idea..

the kids have no use for a computer other than playing games...


This happens alot.. more specifically, it happened alot in the mid-ninteies, when the Windows/Mac war was decided.. I know because I was in high school and heard about 12 and 13 year olds telling their parents what to buy

If all the PCs are reliable like the Mac or any Unix system, 90% of all the IT professionals will loose their job!!!! M$ keep making the OS easy to break and the world of IT will just keep fixing it for a living, day in and day out. That's simple economic and I bet some IT guys will deny it but deep down they know why they will stick to Windows.

The reality is the Mac does a lot of things well, but can't do everything out there.

There are a lot of legitimate knocks against the Mac platform which Apple can't take care of by itself.

Even if companies switched over to the Mac, you still have to deal with clueless users.

BTW, just wanted to say you guys are much easier to talk to than the Slashdot crowd. Mention Mac and you will be treated like you committed treason.

Glad that we can all still have intelligent talks around here.

The problem is the word "standard" which means unless there is a mass migration, there is almost no migration. The only thing missing for 90% of the PC users I know to switch is games. Stupid, walk into WalMart type games, not hardcore. And people who dont play games, usually have nothing they could easily move to a Mac, but they are obsessed with the word "standard"

At home I have a Mac. 2, actually. At work (I'm a radiologist) our department is entirely filmless. But all of the HIS, RIS, and viewing software are Windows, and there are no Mac variants for any of that. This is frustrating, because the things clog and jam several times a day. I only mention this because it makes the point that there are still significant areas where the Mac can't function and Windows rules all - base on it's universal presence as the 'standard'.

Also, we will be buying new equipment soon, and it is all driven by Windows software on PC's. It is marketed as being 'better' because of that - ie., more familiar to techs, and requiring less training. Again, a place the Mac can't go. Until the Mac reaches greater than 50% market share and becomes the new 'standard', there will always be large portions of industry that have no use for them.

So perhaps we can only hope that the Mac will sway the consumer market enough that one day, as the new standard, it will be able to make inroads into enterprise and industry. I'll bet Jobs, Ives, and the rest 9not to mention myself) will be long-buried before that can happen.

But I'll enjoy the Mac at home until the day I croak.

The other part that irritates is me is how ignorant journalists and etc. keep confusing marketshare with installed base. The installed base for Apple is around 10% from what I heard. I don't. I've heard 90% for Windows but that seems a bit preposterous, probably closer to 85%.

Either way, my point is that the Mac is not as rare as some would like to think.

Radiology of all things I would hope would have a more stable platform than Windows.

Actually, the company that does migrate to Mac OS is usually more profitable since they don't have this massive IT departement (commonly know as "Overhead")

It would suit me just fine to keep MS as the dominate force since an entire industry is supported by its faulty systems.

As a company, we just don't have time for that nonsense. We're just trying to keep our heads above water. When we changed from MS to Apple, we were able to cut our net annual expense by 3% with a 2% upfront cost change for hardware and software. We've found the Mac programs to be easier to use and we spend less money teaching our employees to use the PC.

It will only be when the CFOs start really looking at the bottom line that the dynamic will change.

It totally exhausts me to think about what I put up with to operate a PC the way I operate a Mac. It was the driving reason for the change. Now I enjoy my weekends and the addtional profit to the bottom line.

Corporate America operates like limmings. It's very sad. It's all about politics.

Uh, Less is More, we don't need the politics here. I read that link, and as far as I am concerned, neither he nor you "gets it" politically. But I agree with you on computing issues, it seems. Your injection of politics does nothing to enhance Morton's credibility. His piece on Macs stands on its own merits.

Keith,

Not about politics, but about money and the bottom line, colored by short-sightedness and limited insight.

on a bit of a longwinded subject why don't we have another crackmac compo like in this article

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=02166

OK Here goes, and I'm sorry to potentially screw the rest of this message board, I like President Bush and what the US is doing in Iraq. It sucked that the average Iraq citizen had to suffer through the invasion and the on-going violence, but I was sure it need to be done before the US started and I'm totally sure of it now. A group of people from our church sent several weeks in Irag in November and they got a completely different perception of what the Iraq's thought then what you here over the news. When some of the members of that group made a presentation about their efforts in Iraq, they broke down and cried about how much the Iraq's appreciated our being there and forcing a change, yet the media paints a bleak picture focusing on the negative.

GREAT Article. That guy finally put into words and print, eloquently and concisely, what Mac Users the world over have been feeling for years. I sent him a thank you email.

On another note, I think I may have switched another friend today. He had been saying that he was thinking of getting a new computer. I told him that he should at least consider the Mac seriously. We stopped by the Apple Store today and he was floored by the experience. We walked around playing with any computer or item on display. He seemed nervous doing it at first but I told him that was what they were there for and then he started getting into it. We were looking at iPod shuffle demo units and another customer just started talking to him out of the blue about its benefits and features, he was freaked by the Genius bar and the free tech support, the theatre was having a special event with the local Apple MUG, we were back downstairs and I was explaining about a powerbook and an employee came over and complimented me on my knowledge and filled in some more points and answered my friends questions.

My friend asked the guy what it was like working for Apple and the guy shared the following story: Turns out he used to work for Microsoft. A Mac Head friend had been after him to at least try out the Mac and finally loaned him one. He said he tried it out for a weekend and then went in on Monday and quit his job. He then went to Apple, told them his story, and applied for a Job. They hired him on the spot.

We walked out of there and my friend said he had never had an experience like that in a store anywhere...ever. He is now talking about maybe getting a Powermac G5. I told him that would be great but take a little time and pick out the Mac that will best suit his needs (probably an iMac G5 in my opinion but it is up to him). He was so impressed that he is all excited now to get into the "Macintosh Experience".

It is experiences like this that make it worth my time to promote Apple products.

Making the world a happier place. One user at a time.

Nice story, Jack A; validates Job's retail strategy: a hit as the MAW-no-PUP-lately says.

Grrilla,

Don't know if this helps, but take a look at it
http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/apex/

Am I the only one to point out that Microsoft is in Redmond, not Seattle?

Was it Grrrilla who expressed being a radiologist and that there are not Mac programs for such? Is this actually what you are trying to say Grrrilla? If so, all I can say is `look around, look around!' I have an MD and PhD. plus an assortment of other such distinctions. I became most enamored with Mac OS X's grandfather as the MacOS and hardware just wasn't up to speed some 17-18 years ago. In all that time, I have never `had to use' a MS Windows based system for viewing radiographs and in fact have made sure to have the superior alternatives for doing digital tomography. We are now even doing developing Mac OS X based programs for T-Ray as well as Electron Microscopy systems that have better interpretive algorithms to be used in about 10 healthcare campus centers (where total dental revisions are an integral part) we are building in the next 4-5 years.

By the Geography Nazi, having close ties and in the process of putting down more roots in the Seattle and near Seattle areas, I was a bit taken aback by the incorrect geographical reference in the article. I believe people in the Greater Puget Sound area would look more favorably on the people in the Bay Area if this were corrected.

Ummm no. No I don't have spyware. Why? Because I don't run internet imploder, I have my system locked down so I'm running my account in user mode, I have NAV, and I’m not a knob when it comes to safe computing practices. “Oh look. I have a system prompt asking me if I want to run this executable from the web. Well duhhh it’s coming from the web so it has to be safe. Duhhhh.”

I've never gotten a virus on my system in my life and I've never been infected with malware. My neighbors on the other hand are constantly bugging me to *insert winy voice* “Please fix my system.” One in particular I've cleaned their system of spy\adware 3 times. The second I migrated them over to FireFox but they still got adware which was a new one for me. (Tracked it down to the fact that some of these sneaky SOBs are now using java installers. The idiot ignored the big warning box that said this could be a security risk. (*looks around* I see stupid people everywhere and they don’t know they are stupid.)
I'm sick of being the alpha geek of the neighborhood. The next time someone comes to me I will have a ready made pamphlet on the Mac Mini. I will hand it to them and tell them there is your solution and slam the door on them. Leave me alone!!

P.S. About that geography, the writer does get it correct later on when making references to the infiltration of iPod at MS Redmond's Campus and the embarrassment for them.

SiliconAddict: try do that. It might work.

My two neighbors are now with new iMacs (one 17" and one 20") and not only they do smile at me more than when I was fixing their PCs (they thought I kept secrets from then for not being troubled from viruses and malware in general). Was telling them that I simply was on a Mac but they did not truly ever believed that.

Then, I simply told that I was not doing a favor by fixing their Windows PC all the time, and truly had a secret: the Mac. This is the secret: it is used by FBI and CIA agents and people in the government, that is why the keep the truth from people: they do not want too many on the Macs because it would be difficult to secretly access their computers.
That is also why Apple does not tout too much their security: they have an agreement with special forces and intelligent services.

THIS they believed it. They are an a Mac.

PS
It helped I work for a National Lab and have an email ending with ".gov".
PPS
They know the truth now that I was joking but they also understand why I did it now that they are on the Mac and love it.

Incidentally, this also proved me that Windows users are so much used to FUD that they could be made to believe everything about computers, even the above or that you need $10,000 afterwards to fill your iPod.

I'm having difficulty posting. Everything works fine up until I enter the magic word and click "submit". It points to a pop-up ad (Link is the same as the ad that's near the submit button).

XP with Firefox

---
Mac & PC Guy

Look up... how's that for exposing my soft underbelly?

G'day fellas and ladies.

---
Mac & PC Guy

I'm having difficulty posting too--for the same reason. And I'm on a Powerbook with OS X 10.3

microsnot should drop longhorn and call their next system "ostrich"
keep your heads buried in the sand...

Mac and PC Guy. That was the MAWPUP (MAgic Word Pop Up Problem) I was having some problems with it too for a while but it is fixed for me now. Safari on a Tibook.

Jack... Thanks. I wasn't aware others had the same problem.

I await and see if and when crApples become as popular as winbox's and see how much security penetration it gets, and how fast crApple can resolve these problems. Right now through, many people are as interested in uncovering holes in the Mac as much as they want a Mac.

Even Unix based machines are liable to holes, don't fool yourself.

trippah: OS X *is* Unix. A FreeBSD incarnation. Why do you expect it to behave any differently? Who ever told you that OS X is bullet proof: it is Unix, with all the goods (a lot) and the bads (some say a lot as well).

But security-wise, OS X is no surprise: it is BSDUnix.
Pretty strong.

It won't probably be Apple to resolve any outstanding security problem but the OpenSource community that does that on Unix since decades. Most security patches released by Apple deal with OpenSource.
Security is in good hands: there is a whole world of talented people contributing to fixing security problems.

And for the nth time, whenever there will be a virus for OS X it will have to be one that overcomes the user. That is, all the proof of concepts that came around OS X last year are way silly in that they are just that: proof of concept. If a virus NEEDS the user to click few times and type the password in order to a) get installed, b) start operations, c) spread it is a JOKE, not a virus.

To be harmful it has to work in an automatic way, fully unconstrained by the fact that there is a user at the keyboard. To do that it HAS to be fully a BSDUnix virus. BSDUnix has since long shut down - because of the contributions from OpenSource - all easy and evident way to do that. The easy and evident way that Windows abounds with, to understand each other.

Finding a new undiscovered hidden flaw to take full control of a BSDUnix platform is difficult: do not fool yourself that it has anything to do with market share. It has to do with the difficulty of the task and the script kiddies breaking havoc on Windows daily hands down and blind folded are pure and simply NOT UP TO THE TASK. Period.

Peace.