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A convert with a crush on his Mac
Macworld ^ | August 01, 2005 | Douglas Schweitzer

Posted on 08/01/2005 7:13:35 AM PDT by Panerai

This month, I celebrate an anniversary. No, not my wedding anniversary; that was last month. This anniversary marks my second as a Mac convert. Over the past two years, my Mac has lived up to all its promises and has never ceased to delight me.

One of the main reasons for my initial interest in the Mac was security. Having spent countless hours repairing my family’s, friends’ and co-workers’ computers after the ravages of malware, it occurred to me that there must be a better alternative. With its Unix core, the Mac OS X operating system was very appealing to me.

Yeah, I tried several flavors of Linux but never could get any of them configured precisely the way I wanted.

When it comes to raw, out-of-the-box security, the Mac has you covered from the minute you plug it in. Most ports are closed by default, and like Windows XP, OS X comes with a built-in firewall that can be enabled with a few mouse clicks. As far as malware is concerned, well, there are very few viruses or pieces of spyware written that can infect a Mac machine. This isn’t so for the PC. In fact, security vendor Sophos estimates that a brand-new, unprotected PC has about a 50-50 chance of getting infected within its first 12 minutes online. The Mac OS makes it hard for malware to get through.

For example, one of the ways malware is able to “hide” from users under Windows is via hidden file extensions. Many users aren’t aware that even if you tell Windows to display all file extensions, there are still some that are hidden by default. To make matters worse, a Trojan horse or any installed program can reconfigure your extensions so that they are no longer hidden.

(Excerpt) Read more at macworld.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: apple; linux; mac

1 posted on 08/01/2005 7:13:36 AM PDT by Panerai
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To: Bush2000; antiRepublicrat; Action-America; eno_; Glenn; BigFinn; Brian Allen; byset; Bubba; ...
Love your Mac? How about a crush? PING!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

2 posted on 08/01/2005 7:20:21 AM PDT by Swordmaker (tagline now open, please ring bell.)
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To: Swordmaker

I really don't understand why people have such a hard time making the switch to a much more pleasant computer experience.

I made the switch years ago and haven't regretted it at all - ever.

Love My Mac Bump!

Cheers, CC :)


3 posted on 08/01/2005 8:19:25 AM PDT by CheneyChick
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To: Panerai

It's been 13 years since we bought our first Mac. Been through Performas, clones, G3 and G4 Powerbooks, G3 and G4 towers, Cubes, and now a Mini. Loved every one.


4 posted on 08/01/2005 10:47:11 AM PDT by AZLiberty (Binary: The Power of Two)
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