he may want to price out a comparable dell, oh and don’t forget the cost of the preinstalled software

no vista upgrade for you, then?

I have to comment on this quote:
“It’s bad enough that Apple has to run those super annoying ads where they try and get people to believe that viruses don’t exist if you have a Mac,”

well that virus doesn’t exist on a mac, it appears as nothing more then a non-executable file big deal. And in my opinion it is windows fault. It was a machine at the hard drive manufacturing plant in china that had the virus that put it on these ipods during production. If it wasn’t a machine running microsoft windows in the manufacturing plant then this virus would have never gotten on the ipod hard dirves. So you see it is microsofts fault. Fix your damn holes already microsoft. Enjoy your virus ridden OS Mr. freeberg. you come off as a windows fanboy just as much as any apple fanboy.

Dan – A very valid point. Well Noted.

Big Ben – We all have our own reasons for why or why we don’t buy products from certain companies. I don’t buy from Apple because I want my software to be able to work on my hardware and I don’t want to overpay for a slick user interface. Apple did not take responsibility for their action, they used the snide comment about Microsoft as a way to deflect the attention and criticism away from their own failure. It’s their smugness and the unrelenting blind devotion by the Apple Fanboys despite Apple screwing up big time on this one that makes this jab at Microsoft seem so inapprorpriate.

As far as your refusal to use Apple boxes because you think the marketing is smarmy, okay. I mean, if that’s what you base your buying on, fine. Meanwhile, most reasonable users are going to figure out which system works best for them. No reason to get angry at the small group of people who like Macs.

“Had Steve Jobs been better at competing in the 1980’s and 90’s, Apple would have been the dominant player in this space and they would have been targeted by the hacker community.”

Of course, I’m sure this was just an oversight on your part, but Steve Jobs didn’t work for Apple from 1985 to 1997. He was booted less than a year after the Mac first shipped. So, Apple’s failure to effectively compete can be laid at the feet of those who kicked SJ out of the company.

Temptation #1 – Taunting – Never in the history of computing devices has any other computer manufacturer been so brazen about its security as to advertise it to so many around the world. This level of taunting is like twisting a dagger into the hearts of hackers.

Temptation #2 – Transparent – Apple utilizes far more open-source code than Microsoft. This code is not only in user systems, but is also found in Apple’s servers and super-computer grid configurations. All of Mac’s core operating system, BSD UNIX, is freely available for use and inspection for vulnerabilities.

Temptation #3 – Vulnerable – Over 95% of the Mac OS X users do NOT use ANY malware protection software. In fact, corporate-owned Apple systems, from in-store demo units to the staff at Cupertino, do not use any such software. They rely upon the innate security of the OS alone.

Temptation #4 – Fame – To be the first to create a successful, self propagating virus or to take control of a Mac for the use of being an unwitting spam generator would bring tremendous international notoriety; the Holy Grail of programming. Apple’s public announcement of being virus-free makes this challenge impossible to ignore by many hackers.

There isn’t a hacker out there that isn’t aware of Apple’s use of open source programming, their lack of virus protection software, and their arrogant public taunting of criminals. The general population still dwells within their vast herd of false security and myths, having yet to experience a Mac for themselves and view Apple as being an obscure computer system. But, for the hackers, they clearly see it, they are very well aware of it… but can’t touch it. For them, Mac OS X is far from obscure.”

I will admit that I took a cheap shot at the Mac, but then I’m not responsible for shipping hardware to customers and infecting their computers with equipment. Instead of using their failure as a PR opportunity, Apple should have done the right thing and apologize.

I’ll give you that Apple’s response went over the line. I was shocked when I read it as well. But your comment about viruses on the Mac will get every Apple fan upset because of it being blatantly false.

http://www.macvirus.org/

All computers have vulnerabilities whether these are software, hardware or socially engineered. If you want to blindly believe that you can go willy nilly around the internet without having to worry about putting your computer at risk then I will have no sympathy for you when you do catch an internet STD.

If you take a moment and think about it: what Apple says about viruses – it’s actually true. There are really no known, effective viruses for Mac (or any other computer system besides Windows). The virus can damage *only* Windows computers. Windows was not built for Internet age, with security in mind; a fact that most people don’t want to understand. Windows is actually a single-user system, if you compare it with other systems.

PS. I dont use Apple products myself.