Sorry, Hit submit too quickly.

Y’know, he wants people to stop the FUD, yet he’s spreading some of his own. Maybe Windows pre-XP SP2, but after SP2, Windows got a whole lot safer. (For one thing, ActiveX controls never automatically work unless they are signed by Micrsoft, and the firewall is on by default.)

So you are now using IE for all your browsing?

No, I didn’t say ONE Thousand, I said THOUSANDS.
And hey, at least I didn’t say Millions. heh

I agree SP2 makes XP a lot safer, SP2 is in my mini USB drive and is one of the things I install on Windows PCs as part of my service/repair if they lack it.

But I still see infestations happening on PCs that have SP2. And yes, PCs can be made almost as secure as OS X - but one must spend more money (usually) to do so, and that’s not part of the OS. Thus my comment.

What really confuses me is the idea that this is a FUD campaign by someone outside of the Mac circle to turn off “would-be Mac buyers.”

I mean, did you totally ignore the long history of “Hack my Mac” contests? I mean, that is just BEGGING for it. Or, how about the fact that this information almost always appears on a Mac news site either first and foremost, or seconds after someone else reports it? Not to mention the absolute redundancy of most Mac news sites. It’s all about rumors and speculation.

I can’t see that at all. I can’t find one leg for a conspiracy theory about some unseen force of people trying to get would-be buyers to turn away.

I think the people that say that the sky is falling are the same people who are tired of hearing the same stuff over and over about how OS X is perfect and if you use Windows you are making a pact with the devil, and so on.

Oh, and BTW Sogni, a PC can be locked down incredibly tightly for free.

Avast!

What really confuses me is the idea that this is a FUD campaign by someone outside of the Mac circle to turn off “would-be Mac buyers.�

It’s sensationalism to get Web hits and to sell papers, spurred by companies that sell anti-virus software and firewall software.

MacWorld is not above publishing stories that have no business being published to create controversy that translates into hits.

The Sacramento Bee recently had a story called The Worm Turns about the two Mac “viruses”, which is the term they called it. Funk, you were very upset with Pogue for his journalism in regards to Vista being a rip-off of OS X, right?

This Sac Bee article only quoted a guy from Symantec and another guy from Secunia about how Mac users need anti-virus software and a firewall (yes, buy Symantec’s firewall software instead of using the built-in firewall in OS X).

They actually said that the reason OS X is getting hit lately is because Apple switched to Intel processors and that makes the Mac more like Windows PCs, and thus, with their logic, the same processor means you get Windows virus issues. Ha!

This was the Business Technology reporter of The Bee.

There are two things that plague issues with any OS:

1) Sensationalism

2) Uneducated writers acting like they are educated.

“PC can be locked down incredibly tightly for free.” I never said it cant be, the tools are just not a part of the operating system, so it takes more effort. Not to mention a performance hit to the system. Which is still an expensive trade-off even if the tools are free.

And that was a link to antivirus, how good is it compared to others such as Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite? Do they update daily? And what about antispyware?