Posted on 06/01/2011 8:10:35 AM PDT by Wooly
oops meant to say...”harsh variety of Mac guard”
Windows/PC users have been taking it on the chin and in the gut for a decade.
* Bad enough, that there were legions of virus writers, Trojan writers, script kiddies, and whatnot, taking scurrilous advantage of the vulnerabilities rampant in Windows in the early part of the decade.
* Worse, that when Microsoft started to try to address security with WinXP Service Pack 2 (SP2), they had to BREAK thousands of functional applications to do it.
* Even worse, when Vista finally shipped, with enhanced security, the new UAC was a "Mother-May-I" approach that annoyed the bejesus out of the users yet again.
* And all the while, Windows users had to deal with the annoyance of bloated, performance-robbing anti-virus programs.
(I know these things all too well myself, because I've been a Windows user continuously since the late 1980's.)
BUT the icing on the cake was that all this time, Apple users were running their OS-X Macs with no anti-virus software, essentially threat-free, and enjoying the fact that OS-X was virtually impossible to attack successfully. The virus writers mostly ignored the Mac because OS-X was too difficult to break into. Meanwhile the Mac users (and Apple) were constantly thumbing their noses at the beleaguered Windows users with ads like the Apple "Mac vs. PC" series.
But by the end of the decade, Windows has gotten pretty secure and stable, nearly as much so as Mac OS-X. And as a result, the virus writers started turning their attention to the Mac. It was still too hard to attack the operating system, but "social engineering" attacks on the USER were pretty refined, and finally ONE got slick enough that it became an actual threat to the Mac platform.
The PC users have been waiting a decade for this moment. Even though the new malware isn't a true virus, and is fairly easy to block, it was the first significant threat that Apple had to respond to with quick-turn security patches. So it's sorta historic in that respect.
All that pent-up anger and frustration is coming out. You should see the PC tech press -- they're like sailors who have made shore for the first time in years, and they're drunk with the glory of being able to use "Apple", "Mac", and "Malware" in the same headline.
You can't blame Windows users for feeling ecstatic. Of course, those who are being obnoxious about it are a pain, but some of that is to be expected. The joy of their schadenfreude will fade in time, but I expect it will take months at least.
No, it’s still stupid. I was a PC user until very recently. WE ought to all be focusing our anger on the people who are the real problem. Instead we waste a lot of energy hating each other. It begins to remind me of the Republican party. Or 15 year old boys... *sigh*
Oh, but I forgot to say, thank you for the history. And even as a PC user, I thought the Mac ads were cute.
Well, sure, but that's human nature. Maybe not at its finest, but human nature nonetheless.
> Oh, but I forgot to say, thank you for the history.
You're very welcome, my pleasure.
> And even as a PC user, I thought the Mac ads were cute.
So did I.
I don't have any particular computer loyalties -- I've used nearly every major small computer since they were invented (my FR profile has a little personal history if you're interested) including MS-DOS from the start, Windows from version 2, all the Mac OSes, a huge variety of Unixes and Linuxes, etc. I am completely bored and annoyed by "mine's better than yours" battles, especially on internet forums. What a colossal waste of time! I do sometimes try to correct gross inaccuracies and misconceptions in others' comments, but that's often futile also, and sometimes gets me in hot water ... *sigh*
I started out with an IBM using DOS and recall not wanting to change to windows because I knew how to use the machine with DOS. Not that I knew much, but i didn’t want to relearn. It was like when I went to the trouble to learn HTML so I could have a webpage, and then, they made it *easier* but it just meant I had to learn a program (I’m still glad I know HTML—at least that I understand it even if I don’t remember code, I understand the process).
But people do waste so much time trying to be better because of what they have.
When my son talked me into my Mac last year I kept my PC laptop. He said, “Why, you’ll never use it.” And I said, “sure I will.” But you know, I’ve used it only once. I dont know why, but I really don’t like the way it *feels* anymore.
However, I don’t really care what someone else uses, and I don’t know why anyone else does. In fact, if someone doesn’t even want to use a computer at all, I’m fine with that too. As long as they don’t want to force me to do something they can do whatever they want. :) But you’re right about human nature.
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