Mossberg: Apple’s new MacBook surprisingly inexpensive, offers vastly superior Mac OS X

20 years ago

“I reviewed the MacBook Pro earlier this year, and lately I’ve been testing the new MacBook, a handsome machine that packs a very good screen and keyboard into a fairly thin enclosure and is surprisingly inexpensive,” Walter S. Mossberg writes for The Wall Street Journal. “There’s a lot to like about the MacBook. It’s a very good choice for anyone considering a Mac and operating on a tight budget. Like the other Intel-based Macs, it can even run Windows alongside Apple’s own Mac OS X operating system.”

“Perhaps the most surprising thing about the MacBook is its price. Despite Apple’s reputation for charging more, the MacBook is actually less expensive than its closest major Windows competitor. That would be the Sony Vaio VGN-SZ240, which also has a 13.3-inch screen with the same resolution, includes a built-in camera, and is available with the same processor and the same memory and hard-disk capacity as the MacBook,” Mossberg writes. “When configured to match the major specs of the base model of the MacBook, the Sony costs $1,629, over 60% more than the MacBook’s $1,099 base price. But the MacBook is much heavier than the Sony. It weighs 5.2 pounds, 37% more than the Sony’s 3.8 pounds.”

Mossberg writes, “Like all Macs, the MacBook is vastly superior to Windows machines in terms of bundled software and security. Apple’s operating system is better designed, more stable and more modern than Windows XP. Its built-in iLife suite of multimedia software can’t be matched on Windows. And it has — so far — been attacked by only two viruses, compared with the more than 100,000 viruses and spyware programs that plague Windows. Those qualities are worth hundreds of dollars, in my view.”

“Like all Mac laptops, the MacBook lacks a right-click button, even though Apple’s own software displays right-click menus. To emulate a right click, Mac users typically must hold down the Control key while clicking the sole button. But the MacBook has a new way to do this that’s simpler: Place two fingers on the touch pad and click with a third. It works well. The MacBook also has Apple’s very cool scrolling feature, which allows you to scroll any screen by moving two fingers over the touch pad. It’s better than any Windows laptop scrolling feature I’ve seen,” Mossberg writes. “But the MacBook lacks two important hardware features that are nearly ubiquitous on Windows laptops. It has no slots for the flash memory cards used in digital cameras, smart phones and other devices. And it lacks a card slot for the adapters that can provide laptops with many add-on features, including flash memory sockets and cellphone data modems.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Another excellent review for Apple’s MacBook; this time by the world’s preeminent tech journalist who, regardless of his status, we simply must ask to identify the “two viruses” he mentions that have “attacked” Macs and the total number of users each of Mossberg’s so-called “viruses” affected. We expect more accuracy from Mossberg. His readers will think that an untold number of Mac users have “been attacked by two viruses.” That is incorrect.

In fact, back on May 11, Mossberg addressed just such questions to a concerned WSJ reader, writing, “There is no sudden security crisis on the Apple Macintosh platform. In fact, for average Mac users, there isn’t a security threat of any significance, at least not yet. It is laughable to compare the real, massive and burdensome security problems on Windows with the largely theoretical security problem on the Mac… As of today, there have been exactly two documented, successful pieces of malicious software — viruses, trojan horses, worms — that affected users of the Mac OS X operating system, since it was released in 2001. And these two failed to spread much, affecting probably a few dozen people, and doing no harm. I expect there to be a small number of additional Mac viruses this year… Security firms are saying that the discovery of these vulnerabilities in the Mac has increased sharply lately. They say that based on past patterns, this should yield a sharp increase in the number of Mac viruses in coming years. But even a ‘sharp’ increase could well mean under 50 viruses by 2008. So my advice to Mac users is that at the moment, I see no reason to buy and run security software, which is in itself costly and can degrade your computing experience… Just turn on Apple’s built-in firewall and relax. There is one exception: If you are running Windows on one of the new Intel Macs, you are just like a Windows user, and you must run Windows security programs when using Windows.”

What’s with the lumping together of “viruses, trojan horses, worms?” Does Mossberg sound a bit confused about what constitutes a “virus” to you, too? Can a piece of malicious code that affected “probably a few dozen people” really be described as “successful?” And how many of these “few dozen people,” if any, work in the labs of antivirus software peddlers?

By the end of 2005, there were 114,000 known viruses for PCs. In March 2006 alone, there were 850 new threats detected against Windows. Zero for Mac. While no computer connected to the Internet will ever be 100% immune from attack, Mac OS X has helped the Mac keep its clean bill of health with a superior UNIX foundation and security features that go above and beyond the norm for PCs. When you get a Mac, only your enthusiasm is contagious. Learn more here: 114,000 viruses? Not on a Mac.

As for the lack of an ExpressCard/34 slot: if you need one, get a MacBook Pro. That’s one of the major ways that Apple differentiates their consumer portables from their professional models. As for media readers, get a USB reader (MacBook Pro owners can slide a media reader into their ExpressCard/34 slot) or, better yet, use a newer digital camera that connects directly to USB. Apple doesn’t suffer old tech gladly. And, lastly, regarding the weight differential between the lighter Sony that Mossberg mentions and the MacBook, you’ll have to weigh for yourself whether the $530 you save to have the world’s best consumer notebook that can also run Mac OS X and Windows natively is worth the extra 1.4 lb.

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Apple: ‘Get a Mac. Say ‘Buh-Bye’ to viruses’ – June 01, 2006
Apple Macs and viruses: Fact vs. FUD – May 26, 2006
Mossberg: Is there a virus threat for Apple Macs? – May 11, 2006
Macs and viruses: the true story – May 02, 2006
FUD Alert: Viruses don’t catch up to the Mac – May 01, 2006
Gartner: Boot Camp won’t expose Mac OS X to Windows viruses or worms – April 13, 2006
The Idiot’s Guide to Mac Viruses For Dummies 101 – February 24, 2006
Atlanta Journal-Constitution asks: Is ‘Mac virus’ all just propaganda from Mac haters? – February 20, 2006
FBI: Viruses, spyware, other computer-related crimes cost U.S. businesses $67.2 billion per year – February 01, 2006
Microsoft apologists and why Apple’s Mac OS X has zero viruses – October 24, 2005
Hackers already targeting viruses for Microsoft’s Windows Vista – August 04, 2005