Need a new computer? Get a Mac!Why? They just work! Here’s my (very opinionated) point of view on the subject. My primary computer is an ancient (by today's standards) Mac G4. I've had it for close to eight years now! And it runs flawlessly every time I fire it up - which is, well, all the time! I've upgraded the software whenever a new version of the Mac OS has come out, and I've added a second internal hard drive, sped up the processor, and added more memory (RAM). It runs three external hard drives, my printers, my scanner - everything! Tirelessly ... I never shut it off. And it never fails. Someday it will, of course. But - for now - it just works! So ... when that tragic day comes - and it will! - all I'll have to do is reboot from the backup hard drive ... and keep right on working. It's hard to keep up. Since I first wrote this page (late 2006), things in the Mac world have changed so much. Now we have the new iPhone - which is literally a Mac in your hand - at least as far as web surfing goes. And I hear it's a great phone too ... and an iPod! All of today’s Intel-based Macs can run Windows PC based programs using Apple’s new dual boot technology. Get a Mac your way, your style. Here are some possibilities: Laptop on steroids - all the bells, whistles and power you’ll ever want? Get a Mac Book Pro. Desktop? Get an iMac. The 24 inch iMac, is simply awesome! And the newest iMacs (August '07) are simply awesome. Desktop on steroids? Get a Mac Pro - the fastest, most sophisticated computer on land or sea. For those of you who’ve bought the old argument that Macs are more expensive than PCs ... well, it just isn’t so - especially in the high performance department. When compared to a comparably configured Dell, the top-of-the-line Mac Pro costs $700 less! And there have been many studies that show the true cost of Mac vs. PC - including the costs of keeping them running and upgrading over the life of the machine - not just the initial cost. Google it to see what I mean. Want to save a little money? Get a Mac Mini, starting at $600 or so. I have one of these also - bought it for my wife a couple of years ago. And she loves it! It's only about 6 inches square, and it can be used with any old monitor and keyboard you happen to have (yes, even the ones you've been using with your PC). Or here’s another great low-cost option: Get a refurbished Mac direct from Apple. My new MacBook is refurbished (Saved me $250!). So was my first iBook. And my wife’s iPod Mini. (In case you’re wondering why I had to buy a new laptop, well ... I spilled a glass of champagne into the keyboard of my six-year-old iBook a couple of months ago! Don’t ask ...) Get a Mac and you can stop wasting your valuable time worrying about the next computer virus or spyware. Macs don’t get them. Why? There’s a silly idea out there that hackers and other internet criminals don’t waste their time on Macs because there are so few of them in use. But, guess what? In fiscal year 2006 there were more than 5,285,000 Macs sold. Apple is now one of the top five computer manufacturers worldwide. And sales in the third quarter of 2007 were up 33% from 2006. The simple truth is: It’s easy to create a virus or trojan horse or spyware for the Microsoft system. I’m told that just about any fool can take an existing Windows virus, rewrite a few lines of basic code and - bang! - release it to the world. These guys have made McAfee and Norton and Symantec millions of dollars. YOUR dollars! But writing a virus that will infect a Mac has to be done at the most basic level because Macs run on a Unix platform that is virtually impenetrable. Mean spirited fools are simply too dumb to hack into it and do any damage. And since - even if there is a Mac virus out there - you’re NOT going to get infected by it unless you do something really stupid, like download an e mail attachment from someone you’ve never heard of. In a case like this, you - or whoever has administration rights to your computer - must accept it and enter a password before anything evil can get into your system. I know absolutely nothing about viruses, and nothing about writing code. Never done it, never want to. And for as long as I’ve been a Mac user - more than 23 years now - I’ve never had any need to deal with such stuff. Interesting numbers: At the end of 2005, there were 114,000 known viruses for PCs. In March 2006 alone, there were 850 new threats detected against Windows. And how many Mac viruses were there? Zero! I - like most people - want a computer that does what it’s supposed to do, that doesn’t crash, and that has a user friendly interface that even I can live with. I’ve never added software to any of my Macs that didn’t work right - the first time! And I’ve never had to spend a single minute on the phone waiting for “Tech Support” to talk me through yet another failed upgrade or software installation. A computer is nothing more than a tool we use to get work - and play - done. The simpler it is to use, the more we can accomplish. Don’t you have more important things to do than run virus scanning software every time you log onto your computer? I do. So ... just do it. Stop banging yourself over the head. Get a Mac. Use it. And forget about it. P.S. - Just for giggles, I just shut down my MacBook, then rebooted it to see how long it would take. (I hear many PC people say this takes "forever!" and that they have to sit and wait for virus checkers and all manner of stuff to load before they can get any meaningful work done.) Well ... the MacBook booted up fully in 24 seconds. Then I typed in my password and waited another 30 seconds or so for every function to be up and running - including the connection to my wireless modem (the new Apple Extreme), my remote 200 G hard drive and my iDisk (on Apple's remote server). Not bad, I'd say ...
To learn more about why you might want to get a mac, go here:
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