virus NIGHTMARE!!!!!!

[Charley]

When I was in NY, I went into a computer store and the 1st floor was filled with Mac's. I spent awhile in there (sad I know but it was three floors of computers =P~) and got chatting to the salesman who told me a bit about them.

I would like to get a Mac one day although I don't think it will ever replace my PC :-s

 

[Michael S]

I was waiting until the next version of OS X came out before getting a Mac Mini - it comes out at the end of the month. The power books are just gorgeous but a bit out of my price range

I have a Linksys router which connects to my cable modem - this has a built in firewall with NAT and no incoming connections allowed. Allowing your average home PC user broadband access via a USB ADSL modem is just asking for trouble.

-Michael

 

[Anonymous]

Yes - theoretically a Mac could get a virus...as could a Linux box...as could SUN....but the risk to the average user of this happening is microscopically minute...p.

Roger, withall due respect, I think the statement 'microscopically small', is a little strong. Although there are less virus's written specifically to target Macs, the risk of attack on a mac is very real and according to the industry gurus who write for the various IT newsletters and mags I subscribe to. The chances of infection/attack are proportianaly less but still very real and one should take sensible protective action

Not contracting a virus or being hacked is purely in the hands of the user regardless of the computer system. I run 7 PCs (XP, Win 2000 and Win 98), all with web connections, and none have or have had a virus on them or been hacked

BTW, these same mags and newsletters have given the mini mac a very cold reception - good idea but poor implementation and not compatible with many peripherals. One IT pro tried a half dozen USB mice and none would work with it - had to buy 'genuine' apple mouse in the end :roll:

Mac Mini £325.

That price gets you a box, no mouse, keyboard or monitor.
Dell will do a full PC with CD writer, mouse, monitor (17") and mouse for £299 including VAT and delivery- and it is about twice as fast as the mini mac [/quote]

 

[RogerS]

Horses for courses, Tony.

You also have to question whatever vested interests said 'gurus' have. I also read the IT press and see equally biased reporting in favour of the Mac. I should know. I used to be a 'guru' until I decided to join the real world.

When was the last virus written specifically for the Mac? If you do the research I think that you will find it was about 10 (yes, ten) years ago. Yes, of course, there is always a chance of getting a virus. I've not said otherwise. There's always the chance that I will get struck by lightning or that Veritas will win the next election.

Bit of a throwaway line, that...'peripherals wouldn't work'. Again, I question the bias of the magazine...probably a PC magazine, I would think. It smacks to me of desperation that they had to go through loads of mice in order to find something that didn't work.

Did they say how many mice they tried beforehand that worked? Did they question whether or not the USB implementation in the mice actually followed the USB standards?

Or maybe, just maybe when writing the 'reviews', the magazine was looking over its' shoulder and the ranks of PC related advertisers. Just IMHO, of course.

I've just wasted a day trying to get a video capture card to work in an HP Pavilion. Still trying. Then I also discover that the soundchip on the HP is not recognised by XP Pro. And let's not forget the incompatibility between browsers when rendering pages. Standards? Which one would you like?

Dell pricing...how much quality software is included? Do I get a complete copy of the operating system? Ah, thought not....one of those Dell special 'recovery' disks.

'twice the speed'...running what? games? running the latest PC virus? running 'test' programs that are biased towards the PC?

What about the TCO (total cost of ownership) of running a PC? I'll try and dig it out but an unbiased academic paper concluded that TCO for a PC was at least 10x more than on a Mac.

Ooh...wossat...aaah.. another 10 'critical updates' from Microsoft. Sorry got to go and patch all my PC's

 

[kityuser]

I can find at least 10 reviews on the web of people who have plugged mice and keyboards straight into a mini mac and have worked (mostly student reviews on uni web-sites.)

I looked into dell a little while ago.

I think you`ll find that the 299 price is for a quite poor spec celeron machine (certainly not 512K cache like the mini mac) with XP home.

and it is about twice as fast as the mini mac

not with XP on it it won`t be :?

the dell comes with works (which is poo), media player (which is poo [bloatware], and certainly does`nt come with any video editing software (of any quality).
However the mac comes with a good unix based operating system, inregrated office suite, cd/dvd editing and burning suite, the list goes on................

I think a fairer comparison is one of these "mini" pcs that you can buy (supposed to sit next to your tv), then I think you`ll find that the mini mac is quite fairly priced.

regards

steve