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Mad as Hell, Switching to Mac
justAMan writes "Security dude, Winn Schwartau, has posted an article on Network World about switching his company to Macs because he's fed up with the security issues plaguing Windows-based systems. He also offers his view on why Windows is inherently flawed and why it will eventually fail because of those reasons.
From the article, 'This is my first column written on a Mac - ever. Maybe I should have done it a long time ago, but I never said I was smart, just obstinate. I was a PC bigot.
But now, I've had it. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.'"
This clearly isn't the case - Apple have shipped not one but two remote code execution exploits through Safari, and there have been serious security bugs that remain unpatched for months at a time.
The problem here is that Macs are being jumped on in the same way Firefox was to get away from IE being insecure. Now Firefox is more secure than IE, that I do believe even after SP2, but it's not magically brilliant. Firefox has had security problems. Even with a very responsive security teams the moment it looked like it was seriously taking off, it was targetted.
Now Firefox was targetted and so far has been able to resist the pressure. They have good guys discovering exploits before the bad guys. The exploits are quickly patched or fixed. Apple does not give the same confidence - security seems to be lower on their agenda than the making their latest gee-whizz widgets feature convenient. What makes anybody think that a Mac is an answer to security when given a large enough herd mentality, the same problems will start appearing a year or two down the line?
Seriously. All I see here is fanboyism. Linux actually has security features like SELinux, execshield, strong privilege separation (how many Mac apps break if they can't write to their appfolder again?) and on and on. It walks the walk, whereas Apple only talk the talk.
what a fucking pussy
I've been using windows all my life (yes, I use linux on another box as well) and I don't have all these problems. Like most of the slashdot community I use my computer for far more things than just e-mail and web surfing. I have even setup medium sized networks and locked them up tight as well.
If you really need to switch to mac to avoid spyware and the like, you really shouldn't have a career in something to do with computers anyway.
big boys use windows
a man uses linux
Sure - they're pretty, hardware and software. BSD based UNIX boxes on steroids. But entrenching yourself into another set of licensing fees when you've already spent your ass on Microsoft.... ouch. This is not a flame post - it's just something that everyone who's got a budget and needs to deploy hardware and software for a group of employees should realize. Apples cost money - lots of it.
But the upgrade path for MacOS X is fast and consistent (for supposedly the most stable operating system in the world). And its patch set is like a service pack every other month.
Major upgrades cost more than $100 to obtain (and that's PER machine). It's great to see that the now-addicts of MacOS X are finally getting a taste of what Linux distribution advocates have known all along. Most distributions are designed for the stable at heart or for the bleeding-edge group. Linux has that type of flexibility.
He talks about computer crashes?? QUIT BUYING SHITTY HARDWARE. My Dell workstation has been powered on non-stop since it was purchased two and a half years ago. Not one stupid blue-screen. Not one crash. It reboots when it needs to apply a security update (yes, even Linux needs to reboot once in a while). But the power supply has been throwing the juice consistently. The secret? Quit installing every stupid piece of software in existence like dancing pets on the desktop, screensavers that play music when you're not at your desk, etc. What happened to function over form?
Luckily he's not looking at purchasing Apple's notebooks which appear to be fabricated by Indonesian children or prisoners in China (constantly riddled with recalls or faulty video gear, etc.). I can't help to imagine that this same type of lowest bidder technology is added to their PowerMac line. Reliable hardware - Apple? OXYMORON. Just Google for "faulty apple" and see what I mean. Apple is the exclusive HARDWARE and exclusive SOFTWARE vendor. Not competition in the segment. No price competition. You pay too much for hardware that just doesn't stack up against the modern Pentium 4 and Athlon64. For what? Pretty window decorations?
What about the transition (Windows to Mac)? We're not talking one for one here. Sure, he can run free office software and save a buck or two. He can get the plethora of browsers out there that his employees are familiar with in a Windows environment. He says they've made the switch in two days. Sounds to me a bunch of people just like click on the pretty icons with their one button mouse. *bleh*
Operating systems are meant to be functional. The fact alone they are pretty could mean absolutely jack and doodle to people who require function. Take spreadsheets for example - can you image putting border decoration like lights during Christmas time around each cell? Having nice window decorations, fading popup menus, etc. is eye-candy.
Pretty and/or functional - your choice. Cheap PCs - your choice. Linux - your choice. Tons of software - your choice. Tons of support - your choice. See the difference?
Ayup
I just bought a dual G5 with 4 gigs of ram and it seems to run half as slow as a single processor Dell I have right next to it with half the ram. Starting Firefox on both will result in my PC with XP opening a browser window much quicker than one of Apple's fastest machines.
My macs burn out twice as fast as my lab's pcs, so Apple is faster in that regard.
I have broadcast playout systems for our two Comcast channels and they run for months before I decide to reboot for software patches. They run Windows. In fat, you will be hard presed to find mission critical computer based equiptment that runs on Apple Hardware in the broadcast industry...
wow, you can really do math.
" A public beta of Mac OS X was released in 2000"
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