USA Today columinst angry about Windows viruses, adware, spyware

“Now I’m really mad. A virus killed my family’s computer. Not just a little cough-cough I’m clogged with spyware and slowing down kind of thing. We’re talking a senseless, untimely death. I’m past denial. Deep into anger,” Kevin Maney writes for USA Today. “It was probably the Sasser virus, according to my new best friends on the Microsoft help desk.”

“Anger about this stuff is spreading as fast as the viruses. At our end-of-summer block party, I mentioned to a group of neighbors that a virus had crashed our PC. Instantly, every one of them launched into stories about unstoppable blitzes of adware (which throws pop-up ads on your screen, or worse) and spyware (which can find stuff on your PC and send it somewhere) and computers brought down by viruses,” Maney writes. “I found out the hard way that it’s a new world out there on the Internet. It feels like living in Mayberry RFD one minute and Blade Runner the next. We had been able to leave the doors unlocked, but suddenly we find ourselves installing bars on the windows and multiple alarm systems. It’s sick. And I’m still ticked off.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: It is sick, Kevin. But, don’t get mad, get a Mac. For our Windows-only friends, information about how to smoothly add a secure Mac OS X machine to your computing arsenal can be found here. After all, in a world without fences and walls, who needs Gates and Windows?

Related MacDailyNews articles:
Is Mac OS X really inherently more secure than Windows? – August 26, 2003
BusinessWeek’s Haddad gets it wrong; thinks low market share spares Macs from viruses – August 28, 2003
Shattering the Mac OS X ‘security through obscurity’ myth – August 28, 2003
Fortune columnist: ‘get a Mac’ to thwart viruses; right answer for the wrong reasons – September 02, 2003
New York Times: Mac OS X ‘much more secure than Windows XP’ – September 18, 2003
Columnist tries the ‘security through obscurity’ myth to defend Windows vs. Macs on virus front – October 1, 2003
Gates: Windows ‘by far the most secure’ system; tries to use ‘Mac OS X secure through obscurity’ myth – January 27, 2004
Mac OS X has no viruses; what’s wrong with Windows? – February 11, 2004
Spyware, adware plague Windows users online; Mac OS X users surf freely – April 19, 2004
Gartner: Worms jack up the total cost of Microsoft Windows – May 07, 2004
Windows ‘Scob’ virus designed to steal financial data, passwords; Macintosh unaffected – June 26, 2004
Tired of patching patches to patch Windows patches? Writer suggests getting a Mac – August 03, 2004
Millions of Windows PC’s hijacked by hackers, turned into zombies; Macintosh unaffected – September 08, 2004
Security is top priority in Apple’s Mac OS X – September 12, 2004
Windows XP worm speaks to users as it deletes their files; Macintosh unaffected – September 13, 2004
University of Chicago recommends all students patch Windows at least once a day – September 14, 2004

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.