Mossberg: ‘Apple’s Mac software and hardware are markedly superior to those of Windows PCs’

The interesting stuff is not open source - it is proprietary hardware and firmware, and specialized technical skills and software, and only goes to trusted places.

By leveraging open source development for the technology that we share with many others, good guys and bad guys, we can focus on the parts that are special. Our bang for the buck, and rate of increase in system capability, has increased -dramatically- thanks to open source.

To me, it's seldom a question of whether to open source, but of when to open source. One must maintain a proprietary and national advantage in leading edge technology, while not wasting the time of developers or customers reinventing the wheel for technology that is widely available.

Just as processors have gone from the proprietary advantage of IBM and the Seven Dwarfs (Burroughs, Control Data, General Electric, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and UNIVAC) to being commodity chips from Intel and AMD, similarly system software, architectures and other hardware advance in wave after wave. Anyone caught trying to hold onto the last wave as if it were still a trade secret or a proprietary advantage gets washed aside, in the tsunami of the next wave.

I think you did the right thing. That's the box I went with a few months back, exact same specs. Now, I know that I'm not 100% impervious or worry-free, but, for the most part:

No spyware
No viruses
Much less in the way of software updating requiring restarts
Where you have to close everything you've got open
No more scanning
No more headaches, or, at least, almost none

I was sick & tired of Microsoft taking over my computer, sometimes shutting me down whether I wanted to or not. And since there's one app I can't seem to find a decent Mac facsimile of (Google's Picasa for photo editing), I downloaded Boot Camp & did what I thought I wasn't going to, install XP on a partition.

I'm still running Windows on my Dell laptop, but I'll never buy a Windows machine again, ever. I wouldn't notice this as much if I hadn't put XP on the iMac, but when you start Windows up...one day I'll COUNT the various firewall warnings, bloatware pop-ups, and general annoyances that all have to rear their heads before I can do anything. And I'm not even using Windows to have any connection with the Internet--actually, I'm going to try to switch off its ability to connect permanently.

I have been dismayed that Google won't come up with a Picasa for Mac. iLife is great, but iPhoto is the ONE app that's clunky & slow & a pain. Picasa to iPhoto is almost sorta like Firefox to IE, except iPhoto is very Windows-like in how it slows everything down. Disappointing, but at least I had the option to put XP on the machine.

One thing I will say about XP is that it's been remarkably stable on my laptop, more so than it had been on my previous desktop. But I started reading about the issues a user like myself would run into with Vista, thought about what I was already dealing with with Windows, and decided to take the plunge.

I think the OS wars & the browser wars are silly, but I don't think there's anything wrong with sharing common experience. After switching to Firefox I'd never, ever use IE again--and, again, although in a pinch I could always find a way to get by with it, I would never again buy a Windows computer. I mean, I suppose I could learn how to run Linux, but what for? Apple makes machines that are, for the most part, built to last. Until they need to be replaced, at which point the amount of time I'm getting back that I took for granted for so many years should pay for the cost of a new box a few years down the line when it becomes necessary.

Just imagining that I don't have to waste any time in any given week not being able to do anything because I have to run an antispyware scan, or because it's too long since I ran an antivirus scan...the occasional Mac software update & perhaps defragment is more than a worthwhile tradeoff. I won't go to the extent of having to throw my specs into some tagline or avatar text because it's not going to become my identity; and I don't care if someone thinks Opera (or even Safari) is a better browser than Firefox. I use what I use because it works for me. And the iMac is a heck of a box. There are maybe two small things that I was used to doing a certain, easy way in Windows that I just can't do on the iMac. The learning curve is not difficult, and, given everything else, if I had 50 little shortcuts & macros & tricks that I just wouldn't be able to do...instead of 2...I think it would've still been worth it.

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