I'm thinking about switching over to the other team.

[MajorGeek]

Being in the business, there are pros and cons. Had this discussion 1,000+ times.

Macs are nice machines. I love em. Good operating system, excellent for sound and video editing. They are also expensive and no choice in what hardware you get, not always bad. Software is more limited and slower to release. Still, if you can afford it, you will like it. Price drives many away.

PC's are more vunerable due to people who are click happy. One time, while doing a review of an anti-spyware program, I tried to get infected as a test (with no anti-malware tools running) and I could not no matter how hard I tried, and I saw some sick crap I have found that the majority of pc users click ok to anything. They typically are downloading illegal music, videos, porn or all of the above. If they are not, then a family member is. They also tend to fall for free screensavers and things that require you download a program to get a program or give up your email and more.

PC's are a huge target because Windows (98, Me, 2k, Vista, 03) are easily installed on the overwhelming majority of computers. When the security argument comes up, you simply need to read Apples and Microsofts patch release notes, they tend to look almost the same! Look at it this way, if you start a business, do you target 95% of the market, or 5% of the market? Theres no money to be made infecting Macs with malware. The most secure, stable computers are the ones not connected to the internet, used by one person, who never installs anything. A little knowledge goes a long way

[bparker]

Truer werds have neva been spoken.

Originally Posted by MajorGeek

PC's are more vunerable due to people who are click happy. I have found that the majority of pc users click ok to anything. They typically are downloading illegal music, videos, porn or all of the above. If they are not, then a family member is. They also tend to fall for free screensavers and things that require you download a program to get a program or give up your email and more.

[Boar-Ral]

Originally Posted by MajorGeek

PC's are more vunerable due to people who are click happy. One time, while doing a review of an anti-spyware program, I tried to get infected as a test (with no anti-malware tools running) and I could not no matter how hard I tried, and I saw some sick crap I have found that the majority of pc users click ok to anything. They typically are downloading illegal music, videos, porn or all of the above. If they are not, then a family member is. They also tend to fall for free screensavers and things that require you download a program to get a program or give up your email and more.

Exactly. I had an argument about Windows Vista security last week with someone who argued that UAC was pointless because every time a security prompt appears, he just keeps clicking OK, so it is pointless. That type of behaviour is bad for two reasons: when such a prompt appears you never click OK without thinking about it, and it also implied that he was operating without an administrator password, otherwise he would need to enter that information each time.

It is basic things like that which really makes the difference between those who are infected and those who are not. I have seen a few people completely mess up their iMac because they did not configure it with a root password and started poking at settings and files until the system would not boot. And the worst is that these same people will do it again and again no matter how many times you tell them and no matter how many times they break something.

As you indicated, screensavers are one of the biggest security risks that I have seen on Windows PCs. New mouse pointers are another one that seem to get people hooked. I have never really figured out the latter, as most of the mouse pointers are so convuluted that I cannot even tell where to click anymore on these computers.

Bleh!