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Originally Posted by Titan
To be clear, I dislike my PC because it does not work well or consistently, if I actually try to use it. Having said that, I do like the mac but was surprised at the steepness of the learning curve. That is all. I don't want to kill Bill or Steve. I just want to use a computer that does what I need it to do. End rebuttal rant.
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And many seasoned PC users are frustrated that being so subject to the masses, PCs are always blamed for being unstable or broken or infected or slow, etc. when ultimately, it is often the user's doing in the first place. This is a problem when you are the most popular and numerous platform. Also, PC makers are forced to make hardware and software that works with an untold combination of different other off the shelf hardware and software combinations for all sorts of people and keep it all compatible. Nonetheless, today's Macs are basically off the shelf PC hardware running Mac OS. Software is more focused and hardware choices are standardized. But still, my point is that when Windows breaks, it's often because of the user even if the OS can be faulted for not being intuitive or providing safeguards against users unknowingly borking their own systems slowly to death.
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On the topic of virii, I have been intrigued by the fact that Mac has not been subject to a major virus attack, given the level of hatred for them in the PC community. I would have expected several virus authors to attack them just to wipe the smug little grin of the macboys faces. I don't pretend to understand the entire thing, or even a small part of the thing, but thought that there is enough hate to fuel a virus based on hate alone and not economic gain. These threads support that there is a high level of hate.
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The big and serious viruses have nothing to do with hate. They have everything to do with money. Their goal is also not damage, but rather theft and control. Virus programmers aren't concerned with silly feuds but make their viruses to make money by amassing networks of zombie computers to do their dirty work. PCs happen to have the largest user base at about 91% of worldwide computers! Macs are only at 8% and in niche areas. It's not significant enough.
But you're right, a lot of smaller virus/malware is written purely for fun and for egos. Macs are safer here not because of marketshare but because when OSX came out, they decided to screw compatibility and just move everyone over to a brand new modern platform based on BSD Unix. This is open source and has been worked on and inspected and tweaked by users for years so it is a great shape. Windows however, is closed platform, reliant on internal microsoft checking and patching...and basically broken for years as it's still stuck in Win32 because of the need for Microsoft OS's and PCs to maintain compatibility and legacy support. If Microsoft had said with WinXP or Vista that they were going to dump compatibility or legacy support for older software and hardware, they'd be screwed.
