| The scales are tipping - enough is enough! Stop being a Zombie! | | Date Created: Sep 25, 2004, 10:50 PM |
 Over the past few days, as more positive reviews of the G5 iMac have been showing up online, even from unexpected sites such as PC Magazine, USA Today and Wall Street heavyweights such as Walt Mossberg, there has been an unlikely juxtoposition of negative reviews of life under the rule of Microsoft.
To witness: Here in Melbourne each Thursday, the national broadcaster 774AM has a call-in program to answer listeners' PC-based questions. Two expert guests alternate each week with show host Jon Faine.
One of those guests is a friend, Charles Wright, who also writes technology columns for the leading Melbourne broadsheet, The Age, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sometime back in August (Real Player needed) Faine availed himself of a new Windows box, upgrading on the cheap from 98SE to XP. He and Charles held court for some time expounding on Xp's virtues, including its built in firewall, with Faine thrilled with his upgrade.
Switch to this week: Faine declared that his monthly broadband allowance has been used up in the first two weeks, and he now has to pay a per MB surplus, even though he has consciously reduced his downloads.
"Ah!" says, Charles, "what about your uploads?"
"What are uploads?" asks Faine, and so launches Charles into a description of how Faine's lovely new Xp box has likely been turned into a Zombie. (Listen here)
(If you listen to the entire interview, you will hear that Faine got an unexpected bonus from installing XP: he learnt to become an IT administrator! I bet he never expected to have to learn so much about networking, spoofing, security, etc. in his efforts to use a PC for whatever. I'm going to take a guess that he actually just wants to do basic stuff rather than prepare for an MSCE exam.)
Of course, Faine is not alone, and this week New Scientist reported just how many PCs are being taken over by spyware and used to upload to the internet all forms of nasties as well as confidential information to unpleasant characters:
"The rate at which personal computers are being hijacked by hackers rocketed in the first half of 2004, reveals a new report. An average of 30,000 computers per day were turned into enslaved "zombies", compared with just 2000 per day in 2003."
On the iMug discussion list here in Melbourne (a support/interest group for Mac professionals) we pondered why Faine had moved from the Mac platform many years ago. I suggested that Mac users could do their Windows friends a favour by dispelling myths about Macs:
"If there is one thing that leaves me scratching my head, it is the perpetuation of the Holy Trinity of Mac Myths:
1. They're good for graphics and design, but not for business (also known as "there is no software for the Mac" myth)
2. They're too expensive compared to what's out there in the PC world
3. Macs also have viruses, malware, and Trojans and can be zombies like PCs.
There is a fourth I hear occasionally: "I'm used to Windows - it would be too hard at this stage, to learn a new system". I ignore anyone who says there are more games for the PC platform, or offer a simple, "That's nice." It's been a long time since I had to defend my Mac preference against that criticism.
So I suggested to my colleagues that if asked about life with Macs, the only answer they now need to give is: "Life with a Mac is great without spyware, malware, Trojans, viruses, and with great built-in software management of pop-ups and spam. And no "mousing" of website windows."
More and more am I seeing Windows users complaining of how much effort it requires just to access the internet behind firewalls, virus-checkers, and ad-aware apps, just to feel safe. It seems many have backed themselves into a corner by buying the cheapest entre to the world of computing using PC crapboxes for half of what an iMac costs, then spending up to match the Mac's specifications, free iLife bundle, and then the costs of firewall software, not to mention the cost of downtime and frustration.
Somehow I figure the scales are tilting slightly. More organisations are searching for open source alternatives to Microsoft products to save money, and establish a sense of independence. This week's Gillmor Gang towards the end of the program speaks of major US banks seeking alternative systems to Microsoft from the Open Source community.
There is a groundswell of unhappiness and anger building in the community of average computer users, who are being forced to see that Microsoft is not getting on top of its security issues no matter what it may aspire to be doing, and that life on the defensive is what PC use is about. With little improvement in sight. Yep, this is as good as it gets.
And if you want the "improved" more secure version of Explorer but not for XP (e.g, 98, 2000), you're out of luck. Microsoft wishes you to pay for that privilege by having you upgrade to XP instead to get a "secure" browser. (Why not bypass that and get something like Firefox instead if you wish to remain a Windows stalwart or you're locked in contractually?)
I wonder when they will do a Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Sydney Lumet's "Network" and cry out, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
Over on another blog I discovered today, more emphatic insistence that security is a major threat to organisations care of Windows' "holes" comes from "securitymonkey" who writes the blog, ITtoolbox.
The Chief, as he calls himself, writes a fascinating Perry Mason-style blog detailing his work in "A day in the life of an Information Security Investigator".
Some of his entertaining cases include:
The Case of the determined debutante
The Case of the agitated ad peddler, etc.
His entry for September 23 was something to delight Mac users (he is a heavy user of Linux with a very deep undertanding of Unix and Windows systems):
I've made this argument many times in my blog, but with the incredible amount of media coverage I had to touch on it again.
Can you imagine a computer that recovers from sleep within two seconds? A computer that looks as good as it runs? An operating system that you can use without fear of Adware, Malware, Spyware creeping into your OS? Can you live without the daily fear of "Dear $diety, what virus or trojan horse is going to try to ruin my computing experience today?" An OS that supports home directory encryption with a few mouse clicks?
And the question I get most of all: "Hey Chief, what do YOU use on a daily basis for all your computing needs?"
The answer is simple, and I will continue to plug them on a periodic basis:
I use an Apple Powerbook G4 Aluminum 15" 1.33Ghz laptop computer, running Mac OS X (10.3).
You too can experience computing nirvana.
Is there a groundswell of unhappiness breeding out there, such that users are going to jump ship to Linux or Mac before it all gets too much? Are we getting closer to a tipping point where it simply doesn't make sense anymore to become so anxious each time you sit in front of your PC to collect email, get the news, or listen to a radio feed? How far off critical mass are we? In all likelihood, years, more's the pity.
I'd rather people came to the Mac because they recognise how well Apple puts the whole widget together, rather than as zombie refugees seeking a safe harbour. But heck, despite how zealous Macheads can appear to be (easy when your platform has so often been referred to as "beleagured" or on its last legs waiting to be put down), we are a warm generous lot when PC users decide to switch. Then we get lots of opportunities to say, "Yeah, it's a Mac thing. We don't suffer with ________" (Insert Windows problem of choice).
(Update: I noticed I accidentally entered this entry under "Community thoughts" rather than the intended "Technology". But the more I thought about it the more appropriate it seemed after all.) |
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