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Dad • 10/29/03 • 5:28 PM:

OK, I’m convinced. But what about popups? These are the things that are driving me nuts at the moment. (Hotmail is a killer. I’m close to just abandoning the account.)

I’m wondering if I should get a powerbook so I can travel with it. What do you think?

Dan • 10/29/03 • 6:06 PM:

popups are few and far between for me. and i’m still using internet explorer. Mac’s own web browser, Safari, gets raves for being quick and limiting popups. Get a mac. I have an emac. They’re awesome.

Patrick • 10/29/03 • 7:38 PM:

Did you read the whole article? At the bottom it addresses popups. I use Safari, Apple’s homegrown browser, and it allows me to suppress popups. Also, its default email program has a spam filter built in.

Re: laptop vs. desktop: For extra money, you can get a good laptop, and there have been times in my life when I wished I had one (especially in Uruguay). Check out the options on Apple’s website. I always find it hard to pay more for less guts, but that’s the price of portability. And really, even the less-expensive laptops are pretty powerful machines nowadays. Remember that processor speeds don’t match up because of chip architecture and other factors. An 800 MHz G4 processor, like I have, does most things about as fast as a 1.67 to 2 GHz Pentium 4 (though the correlation is not direct on all tasks). Also, you’re paying for the software and smoothness of it all.

AJ • 11/03/03 • 12:14 PM:

Of course, you do realize that if Macs become more popular (or possibly the most popular machine) there will be viruses all over the place for Macs. Macs don’t get viruses because there aren’t any, or many, for Macs. Nobody writes code for Macs. Nobody wants to see the downfall of Mac, just the evil that is Microsoft.

I guess it’s probably true that if you don’t know a bunch about computers Macs are great. For one, they’re easy to use. More importantly though it’s hard to do something stupid like run some foreign code that’s probably a virus on your computer in hopes of seeing some cheesy funny program that got forwarded to you from someguy@blahblahblah.com, subject: “Check this out!! - It’s Awesome!”

Awesome? No way. I better run this thing on my computer right away! NO! No time to install Virus Scan, must see the awesomeness!

I like the email that tells me to delete the file with teddy bear icon because it’s clearly a virus.

bq.
Die teddy bear icon! Someguy@blahblahblah.com says I must delete some random system file from my computer, and so I am. If someguy says to, why wouldn’t I?

Of course, my point is that it’s only hard to do these things because nobody is sending Mac users viruses. At least, they’re not sending ones as astoundingly clever as the preceding examples. Viruses that damage Macs help Microsoft. You’d think that since they’re so evil they would be writing their own Mac viruses. Well, it doesn’t matter they’re obviously evil; everyone says so.

It’s probably worth noting that Microsoft Outlook seems designed for running foreign code and is thus extremely prone to viruses. It’s used by just about every company in the universe though, making the spectacular combination of vulnerable software + multiple user errors.

By the way, until you get your Dan-friendly Mac try Ad-aware or something.

Dan • 11/03/03 • 2:06 PM:

I’m not really sure what to make of that comment, Tony. of course there are more viruses for PCs because there’s more PCs. But nobody was saying that there will never be a virus written for a mac. The No Virus thing is just a bonus reason to get a mac NOW.

The one beef I have with macs is that they come with crappy mouses with only a single click option. This is the biggest reason people don’t like using macs. There’s no right-click button. I agree that it is inconvenient, but come on, morons, you can press control+click and it’s the same effect. OR you can buy for $20 a double-clickable mouse. The best part about the mouse upgrade? They are USB, and there’s 2 USB ports on the KEYBOARD itself. That is awesome about macs. Lots of USB ports in convenient places. There’s no reaching behind your desk blindly feeling around 6,000 other cords for an open outlet only to discover that you only have 2 USB ports and they’re both being used and if you unplug one your computer launches into outer space. With a mac, you can plug in your digital camera right to the keyboard. Wonderful.

AJ • 11/03/03 • 4:50 PM:

Umm…you can buy similar accessories for any computer. My PC has USB’s in the front, but you can buy keyboards and monitors and all sorts of peripherals with USB’s all over their faces.

Anyway, I was not being anti-Mac as much as making a point about the viruses and how Microsoft isn’t really evil. Why are you and Pat always flustered with trying to make something with my comment? Maybe if I sent my comments in legos it’d be easier for you, but that can’t be worth the effort by me. I suggest you stop trying to make things with my comments.

I agree with someone’s column somewhere about Mac using the wrong marketing approach with their machines though. They are certainly better than the impression I get when I see one of their ads, which is cutsey looking machines with less wires and simple multimedia interaction.

I guess stepping up with a “why Mac is better than PC” ad would turn the head’s of Microsoft in their direction a little too heavily. I’m sure Apple is still afraid of being crushed into oblivion like they were back in the 90’s when the original Macintoshs became obsolete.

If it was about the best run machines every geek knows that unix-based systems would be the real way to go. Windows and Mac are all user friendly and what not, but c’mon the only REAL operating system is unix (or at least Linux).

Regardless, it’s all about user friendlyness, convenience, and training time. It’s just like the keyboard thing. It’s too much of a hassle to change it even if the change would eventually be for the better. The “eventually” is the problem.

If you work on a Mac, do you have to use multi-platform software all the time, since everyone else uses PC’s (if you’re not compatible what’s the point of doing it on a computer)?

I’m not sure I ever get popups in hotmail, but I still hate it.

Patrick • 11/04/03 • 6:27 PM:

A few points: It’s true that Macs have fewer viruses because there are fewer users, and hackers can’t be bothered. But that’s not the only reason. For one, Apple gets respect among hackers, but Microsoft doesn’t. You figure most viruses are pranks (of one kind or another) against the dominant software manufacturer, whose business practices were questionable at best. For another, Mac’s OS X is Unix. It’s got all the user interface stuff built onto it so you don’t have to be a codehead to figure out how to run your computer, but it’s a Unix system. I am no expert, but I am told that Unix has fewer security bugs and holes and problems. This may be because it is improved upon by hackers who use it on their own machines and know what hackers can do. Microsoft, by making everything all proprietary (and often counterintuitive, nagging, or just plain—I’m going to say it—evil), pisses people off. Especially when they’re force fed it. As for Linux, I respect it. Cool. It’s a PC operating system instead of Windows. But everyone I know who runs Linux is a computer geek (I mean that with the utmost respect).

Macs are easy to use nowadays (and they don’t crash), but they’re also still the choice of graphics, media, video, etc. professionals, many of whom do know a lot about computers. Apple already cornered the market on multimedia and the like. Their new marketing strategy is to spread out. I think it’s a pretty good idea for them.

As for compatibility, I can use PC-formatted disks (Zip or floppy) on my Mac, while the opposite is not true. All content produced by any of the programs I use (MS Word, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Apple’s own software for movies, audio, photos, etc.) is usable across platforms.

No one can “prove” such a subjective thing as “Macs are better than PCs,” but I believe they are, and I have a lot of evidence to support my belief.

Patrick • 11/05/03 • 11:11 AM:

Re: laptop vs. desktop: The computer guru IT guy here has an iBook laptop and loves it. He uses all kinds of computers (including Linux and Unix, AJ), and his home computers of choice are an iMac like mine and an iBook for portability. He has last year’s model, with a slower processor and not so many features, and still loves it. So, Dad, if you’re looking to buy a laptop, this may be the way to go. For $999 (educational price, $100 off), you get the same processor I have in my iMac, 30GB hard drive, 256MB RAM, and a Combo Drive, which plays DVDs and CDs and can record CDs (but not DVDs). The monitor is only 12 inches on that model, but it gives 1024×768 resolution. There are other bigger monitors for more dough.

Dan • 11/06/03 • 6:51 PM:

This was an interesting read.

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